The Will of Fire
by KingBlue10
Summary: Naruto's heroics during the Chunin Exams caught the eye of the newly appointed Hokage, she decided to reward the blonde with a deserved promotion to Chunin alongside Shikamaru . No one would have guessed that these two dead lasts were going to be promoted first, and who would have known this promotion would unleash their true potential. NaruSaku, ShikaIno and NaruShika Bromance.
1. The Promotion

Will of Fire

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

 **Author's Notice: Hey everyone I'm back with a new story, this a new premise I've been intrigued of heading into as of late. I plan on starting a few other stories to keep me motivated and interested in writing but worry not I plan on finishing my past stories eventually. After all The Rise of the Rokudaime Hokage is pretty much my baby at this point. But yeah speaking of The Rise of the Rokudaime Hokage, I'd like to thank everyone who helped me reach the 1000 favorites and follows milestone, please keep up the support it is much appreciated. Please also check out the latest updates for some of my old stories and the first chapters of other of my new stories. I hope you guys support my new stories as much as my old ones. Speaking of the Rise of the Rokudaime Hokage I just released the latest chapter of my story and I would greatly appreciate it if you guys gave it a wee read.**

 **The premise of this story is about Naruto's promotion to Chunin during the original Chunin exams, it baffles me how he didn't get promoted when he not only defeated Gaara, but he defeated Kiba and Neji while pretty much owning the first test. It irked me further how Naruto stayed a genin all throughout the story until he was Hokage pretty much, I think if Naruto was actually promoted there would have been so much more potential for the story.**

 **Anyway as stated earlier other than this I released two other stories and the latest chapter of TRRH, the two others stories are named Inari and The Legendary Three, please give them a read. I put a lot of time and effort into them and I sincerely hope you guys enjoy them and support them like you've done so far for my other stories you bunch of amazing legends. Also keep an eye out folks because I plan on releasing a few more Naruto stories, and even a One Piece story soon. For those who don't know One Piece is actually my favorite manga/anime despite all my Naruto stories and I hope you guys tune in for when they're released. I'm really excited about the One Piece project especially and I hope you guys check them out when they're released as well.**

 **Also for this story as you all guessed this will be yet another NaruSaku story and no sorry but nothing will change my mind. But yeah here is the first chapter of my new story and I hope you guys like it. As per usual if you have any questions, inquiries or suggestions feel free to hit me up via review or private message, I'll try to reply to everything. Also, please follow and favorite this and my other story, I love the support and I'm thankful for it, please keep it up.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: The Promotion**

The newly named Godaime Hokage sat in her very first council meeting, she had just returned to Konoha two days ago and now she was ruling the village as its fifth Hokage. It had been an understandably busy few days for Tsunade recently of course, there were a lot of problems that needed fixing with the death of the Sandaime and the damage left by the combined attack of Oto and Suna.

Tsunade sighed in frustration, for the past few hours her and the council had been discussing the new budgeting plans of Konoha and what to do with their former ally, Suna. She instantly regretted taking up the mantle of Hokage but it was too late to back out now, she wished her perverted teammate would have taken this job instead of her. She could barely handle all these boring politics, but that didn't even include the endless amount of paperwork she had to deal with, along with mission assignments.

Few more hours pass and eventually the council agreed on a conclusion towards the current budget crisis, although Konoha was generally a wealthy village the damages sustained by the village was tremendous. Buildings needed to be rebuilt while others had to be repaired, hundreds of lives were lost, and the village's defenses were weakened significantly.

But as soon as the budgeting segment of the meeting reached a halt, they finally arrived at the topic of the Chunin Exams, Tsunade's ears perked up out of curiosity. She hadn't been there during the Chunin Exams but she had heard interesting stories from Jiraiya.

Before going into the discussion of the Chunin Exams, the three proctors of the exams: Ibiki, Anko and Genma all arrived handing Tsunade folders of what they saw and found during their respective stages of the Chunin Exams. Tsunade gladly grabbed them and gave them a quick yet detailed read. She had also already seen reports of the attack so she had further knowledge of what had transpired during the attack. After reading through the reports she turned to the council members.

"I've read through these files, and from what I've seen there are only two people worthy of a promotion. But before that I wish to hear your opinions as to who should be promoted" she ordered out of pure curiosity.

The spokesperson of the Civilian council was the first to stand, "Hokage-sama we from the civilian council believe that Neji Hyuga, and Sasuke Uchiha are ready for a promotion to Chunin" he said.

Tsunade raised a single eyebrow, "Neji Hyuga? You do know he lost to Naruto Uzumaki and in his fight versus Hinata Hyuga he failed to show any restraint or control, he allowed himself to be taken over by his emotions" she explained, "As for Sasuke Uchiha his fight with the Kazekage's child had no result at first but according to the reports of the attack he stood no chance against that Gaara kid"

"But Tsunade-sama those two have shown a power far advanced for their age, surely they are ready for promotion" Koharu the Hokage's advisor added on.

Tsunade nodded, "Yes they may be advanced in terms of their skill and strength but being a Chunin has much more to do than being physically strong. They are not ready emotionally or mentally for this role, you are only promoting them due to their status as so-called prodigies of their age but their pasts in the academy should have no role in deciding their status as potential Chunin, being a former Rookie of the Year has no say in the matter. Their performance in the Chunin Exams were subpar when you take their reputation in mind. They are not ready for these roles" she replied swiftly and decisively.

"Well then who do you think should be promoted then Hokage-sama?" Koharu asked rather challengingly.

Tsunade smirked at the question, "Upon reading the files only two genin jump up at me for being worthy of a promotion to Chunin. They are Naruto Uzumaki and Shikamaru Nara" she answered confidently. The council was rather silent at first out of pure disbelief, they couldn't believe that their Hokage would rather promote two dead lasts than two of the best prodigies Konoha has had in the past few years.

"You cannot be serious Hokage-sama. Those two cannot compare to Neji Hyuga and Sasuke Uchiha, whatever that Naruto did to win was pure luck. Those two had some of the worst scores in the academy while Neji and Sasuke had two of the best in a long time, they have been compared to geniuses such as Kakashi Hatake and Itachi Uchiha. Their potential is through the roof, and instead of them you want to promote two ninjas who barely passed their genin exams?" the civilian spokesperson claimed.

"Your academy grades should not be taken into consideration for Chunin promotions, those two have progressed tremendously since their academy days, hell Naruto even defeated Neji a former Rookie of the Year during the finals and he did so in a convincing manner as did Shikamaru versus that kunoichi from Suna" Tsunade answered with a sense of authority.

"Tsunade-sama we could understand the choice of Shikamaru Nara, he may appear lazy and unmotivated but he did have an impressive showing during the Chunin Exams. He was methodical and tactical in his approach, he is a very intelligent genin with a lot of potential, best shown during both of his fights. Even if Shikamaru is ready, Naruto is by no means ready for that position" Koharu boldly claimed with much of the council's agreement.

"Pray do tell Koharu, why is that exactly?" Tsunade asked.

"Naruto has shown himself to be impatient and far too reckless in his fights, he goes in gung-ho hoping for the best and honestly he only comes away with the victory due to sheer luck and his tremendous chakra reserve attributed to his status as a Jinchuuriki" she answered.

Not everyone agreed with Koharu's judgement, Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, Choza Akimichi, Hiashi Hyuga, and Tsume Inuzuka were some of the few that agreed with Tsunade. The clan heads of the council watched the matches thoroughly and from what they saw Naruto was unorthodox in his approach but he did manage to get the job done in the end, and he showed a level of suitable of a Chunin. Yes, he may have been unpredictable and unorthodox but that in a way gave him an advantage, it was difficult for an opponent to anticipate the blonde's next series of moves, one would believe that the energetic genin was merely winging his fights but if you knew Naruto well enough you'd know there was some thought upon his actions. Despite how strange they may be at times.

"With all due respect Koharu-san but Tsunade-sama has a point, Naruto managed to defeat Tsume's son Kiba, his tactics may have been unique to say the least but at the end of the day he still did manage to win. He managed to outthink and defeat Neji Hyuga, not only that but according to the reports he managed to singlehandedly stop Gaara no Subaka as well. Kakashi Hatake his sensei vouches for him and you of all people know how difficult it is to gain Kakashi's approval. Naruto has proven himself time and time again, he is ready to be a Chunin" Shikaku argued.

"Thank you, Shikaku-san. Not only that but he was there with Jiraiya to help retrieve me and I saw him fight firsthand and despite his flaws he was still very tactical but in a very unpredictable sense. If you're basing a promotion on potential then I can make an argument that Naruto has far more potential than Sasuke and Neji" Tsunade added on.

"But there is that Tsunade-sama, he isn't ready for Chunin. He is much too irrational, impatient, and emotional. A Chunin must be decisive and controlled, and Naruto is nowhere near that stage just yet" argued Koharu.

"Yes, that may be true he is irrational, impatient and very emotional at times. But despite all those in the end he has used them to his strength. His unpredictability has been one of his biggest strengths" she said as her temper began to flare "What else does Naruto have to do to prove himself to all of you? The young man has fought all his life and he nearly died to protect Konoha. He is a hero, had he not stopped Gaara then the Ichibi would have been unleashed onto Konoha, you all know but you all deny that fact. Despite popular belief the reports claim that the Uchiha had little to do with that battle and I'm sure most of you already know that. You all continue to discredit Naruto and I think we all know why. You're all afraid of what's inside of him, you all want to contain him" she replied while growing in frustration.

"I can make an argument right now that Naruto has already surpassed Sasuke Uchiha and Neji Hyuga in strength. He possesses the ability of shadow clones, an A-Rank jutsu last time I checked and although he is gifted with tremendous chakra reserves he obviously uses it to his advantage the same way the Uchiha use the Sharingan or how the Hyuga use the Byakugan. Under Jiraiya's training you all know that Naruto has even managed to learn how to summon, a skill even Jonin lack, and not only that but he already managed to summon Gamabunta, a chief summon for toads. During his mission to retrieve me alongside Jiraiya, he also managed to learn the Rasengan in a month"

Silence engulfed the room, the Rasengan was one of the most powerful jutsus in Konoha history a jutsu known only by three other men, the Yondaime Hokage Minato Namikaze, the Legendary Toad Sage and Sannin Jiraiya, and the famed Copy-Nin Kakashi Hatake all of which are high-ranking and reputable ninjas not just in Konoha but around the world. For a genin to learn such a powerful jutsu was unheard of, in a way it did show the promise in the boy. Not only for learning the jutsu but doing so in the span of a month.

Tsunade inwardly smiled as she examined the bafflement in the council, 'Maybe now they'd acknowledge the little brat's strength and ability' she thought to herself.

"Is this true Hokage-sama?" asked one of the civilian council memebrs.

The Godaime nodded, "Hai I saw it with my own two eyes and that little brat saved my life during the mission he showed determination, courage and guts dare I say it, worthy of a Hokage and honestly I don't care what you all think I myself am promoting Naruto Uzumaki to the rank of Chunin regardless" she boldly claimed.

The advisors sighed in defeat, "I see I still disagree with you Hokage-sama but your words seem set in stone. It would be pointless arguing further concerning this matter" admitted Koharu.

Tsunade smiled to herself, 'Well looks like you'll be one step closer to your dream gaki' she thought to herself. Naruto reminded her so much of Dan and Nawaki, and the Hokage could only hope that he fulfills the dream those two couldn't.

* * *

 **With Naruto**

The blonde was eating at his usual joint, Ichiraku's Ramen. He was indulging himself in his favorite dish and he was happily spending a fortune in the restaurant. He had just gotten paid recently for his mission to retrieve Tsunade, he wasn't meant to go on it but Jiraiya brought him along nonetheless. He managed to train and learn a cool new jutsu, he brought back the woman who would go on to replace the deceased Sandaime Hokage, and he was paid S-Rank mission money for his role in the retrieval. All in all, it had been a good few days since his return to Konoha.

But upon his return he hadn't met up with any of his teammates just yet, Sasuke was still recovering with the help of Tsunade, Kakashi was away in a small mission to help Konoha's reconstruction, and Sakura was keeping to herself.

The orange-clad genin was already five bowls deep with a sixth on the way when an ANBU operative appeared from a plume of smoke.

Ayame looked on in curiosity at their newly arrived guest, Naruto had to cease his eating and storytelling to look at the ANBU operative that just entered the establishment. The masked ANBU then eyed the young genin and approached the pair.

"Naruto Uzumaki you are being summoned to the Hokage's office this instant by the Hokage herself"

"Do you know why I'm being summoned?" asked the blonde.

The ANBU operative shook his head, "I apologize but I am not allowed to divulge this information" he replied.

Naruto sighed, "Dammit I was just about to get to the good parts of my story, and I'm still hungry" exclaimed the energetic genin.

"That's alright Naruto-kun I'll save this ramen for you and when you get back we'll continue from where you left off. Sound good Naruto-kun? It's probably not ideal keeping the Hokage waiting" said Ayame.

Naruto smiled brightly at Ayame, "Really? Thanks a bunch Ayame-neechan I'll definitely stop by later today for dinner or something" he said before turning and walking over to the ANBU operative, "This better be good Baachan, I was in the middle of some delicious ramen" he softly muttered to himself.

The ANBU operative held Naruto by the shoulder before using Shunshin to transport them to the Hokage's office within seconds, and there Naruto stood in front of the Hokage's desk with Tsunade herself looking over at him. He then turned to his left and he saw Shikamaru also standing there beside him in front of the desk. Other than them there was no one else in the room, the ANBU operative was quick to vanish the second he brought Naruto to the room.

"What's the meaning of this Baachan I was in the middle of some amazing ramen" complained Naruto.

Tsunade scowled while Shikamaru shook his head and rolled his eyes, "Shut up gaki I called you here for something important so you better shut up and listen if you know what's good for you" she warned.

Naruto felt the intense killer intent radiating from Tsunade so he decided to shut up for now at least, Tsunade waited for a few seconds and she was relieved when there was no talking back from the usual smartass blonde.

"Well then now that you're both here I'd like to be the first to congratulate you two for the good news, as you both know there was a very important council meeting yesterday and one of the main topics to come up from that meeting was regarding the Chunin exams, to be more specific Chunin promotions" she said with a smile as she watched the bewildered looks on both Naruto and Shikamaru's faces.

"Wait what was that?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Let me finish and you'll find out" Tsunade replied, "Well after much discussion it has been decided that out of all of Konoha's participants you two are ready to be promoted to the rank of Chunin".

Naruto's eyes widened in shock he couldn't believe that he had just been promoted, "Wait you're not playing some prank on me are you Baachan? Because if you are…"

Tsunade rolled her eyes and interjected, "No I'm not baka, I'm not like you to pull pranks. This is real brat and from your whole batch you two are the first to gain this promotion so there it is, congratulations. I stuck my neck out for you two so you two better not let me down you understand"

"So, you're actually serious? Is it just me and Shikamaru here? What about Sasuke, Neji, Shino, Lee and the others?" Naruto asked.

"Well it was decided that although they all showed promise they were far from ready to be Chunin, you two on the other hand displayed the right skill, decisiveness, tactics and intangibles to garner the promotion" Tsunade replied.

Naruto suddenly had a smug grin adorn his face, "Well what can I say? That's to be expected of a future Hokage after all" he exclaimed confidently before breaking out into a loud and played out laugh.

Both Tsunade and Shikamaru sweatdropped at the display, it was clear that Naruto's ego was already growing at an exponential rate. But they couldn't really blame him he did just get promoted and he beat his rival to it as well.

"Excuse me Hokage-sama if I may, why was I promoted as well? If I recall correctly I surrendered and lost my battle against Temari" asked Shikamaru.

"Good question Shikamaru, but if you remember it was said that you didn't have to win your battles to get a promotion. You just had to display certain skills and you did just that. From the reports, I read you displayed a tactical prowess and a strategy far beyond your years and you also showed your ability to adapt in pressure circumstances. Best shown during your fights against Kin and Temari, you may not have won the latter but if it was a fight of life and death you would have come down victorious. You have also shown yourself to be a capable leader with potential to grow in many aspects, in all honesty the only thing you need to do is stop being lazy and you could truly make something of yourself"

"What about me then Baachan?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Listen here brat you better watch yourself if you call me Baachan one more time I can revoke that promotion you hear?" Tsunade threatened.

Naruto gulped nervously before nodding, "Hai Baa….err I mean Hokage-sama" he replied with an anxious chuckle.

"That's better gaki, now the reason you were promoted was due to your amazing performance not only in the Chunin exams but in the battles, that came after the finals. You managed to display an unpredictable and unorthodox tactic in fighting Kiba and Neji but they also worked in the end. It was unique from what I've read but in all honesty, it's good for ninjas to think outside the box, but you gaki you definitely live outside the box. Other than that, you also displayed strength and power far beyond a genin when you battled Gaara no Subaku and when you came with Jiraiya to retrieve me. Ibiki also mentioned your leadership skills in the first test, you managed to instill courage and rally the other genin not to give up and I found that very impressive considering how risky the costs of failing were said to be. Kakashi and Jiraiya have also vouched for you making this an easy decision"

Naruto nodded with a great big smile on his face, he was finally gaining some recognition and he was one step closer to his dream of becoming Hokage. His genin days were over now he was a Chunin, and it was only a matter of time until he reaches the next step of becoming a Jonin.

"Alright now here grab this you two" said the Hokage as she handed each of them a storage scroll.

"What's this Hokage-sama?" asked Shikamaru.

"These are storage scrolls that hold the items given to each newly promoted Chunin. Inside you will find your Chunin vest, the latest bingo book, and a few ninja equipment such as new kunai, shuriken, makibishi, ninja wires, explosive seals and a tanto blade" she answered.

"I see well arigato Hokage-sama" replied the lazy Nara.

Shikamaru found all of this troublesome especially the promotion because he knew that meant more work, but he knew it was unwise to display such dissatisfaction on front of the Hokage who chose to promote him and Naruto.

"Now onto the vows, now that you are both Chunin you must both agree to these vows if you wish to truly be a Chunin"

Naruto and Shikamaru both nodded in understanding.

"Do you vow to risk your life and protect the mighty Konohagakure no Sato and the people of the village from any danger that may come our way?"

"Hai Hokage-sama" they replied in unison.

"Do you vow to uphold the Will of Fire, a belief held since the days of the Shodai Hokage Hashirama Senju?"

"Hai Hokage-sama"

"Do you vow to represent Konoha in honorably and courageously in any circumstances?"

"Hai Hokage-sama"

"Do you vow to remain loyal to Konoha never to reveal any of the village's secrets to any who may seek to harm it?"

"Hai Hokage-sama"

"And finally, do you vow to respect and cherish our home Konohagakure no Sato?"

"Hai Hokage-sama"

"I Tsunade Senju, the Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato promote you Naruto Uzumaki and Shikamaru Nara to the rank of Chunin. May the Will of Fire flow through your spirit and guide you"

"Arigato Hokage-sama" the two said before bowing in honor of the Hokage.

"Now that all these formalities are over I'd like to congratulate you two on becoming Chunin, this is a tremendous achievement I even remember when I first became a Chunin. You two should be proud of your accomplishments, I'll be expecting remarkable things from the both of you. Now any questions?"

Shikamaru nodded, "Hai Hokage-sama. What are the main differences between being a Chunin and being a genin?" he asked.

"Good question Shikamaru, first off the main difference will be in your missions. When genin you were mostly restricted to D-Rank missions with the occasional C-Rank missions. Now as Chunin however you can choose to do D-Rank missions by yourselves whenever you want, you can also apply to go to C-Rank missions with a few other Chunin or a couple of genin as well whenever it is available. But now you are also allowed to join in B-Rank missions occasionally and if you show enough skills as Chunin then you may also be allowed to take part in a few A-Rank missions every now and then" she explained.

Naruto was getting excited just listening, he was sick and tired of the boring missions he got and now he was being allowed in some action. Higher ranking missions were now available to him.

"What about our current teams?" asked Naruto.

"Well Naruto you will still be a part of Team Seven, and you Shikamaru you will still be a part of Team Ten but from now on you do not have to join them for every single mission. You will be dispatched in other teams and missions every now and again but you can still join your usual teams in missions. It's just now you won't be with them as often because there will be times they will be doing D-Rank or C-Rank missions whereas you may be needed in a B-Rank mission or a different C-Rank mission. All in all you will still be a part of your team but you are no longer required to join them for every single mission"

The two nodded in understanding, "I see well thank you again Hokage-sama we appreciate the promotion" Shikamaru replied politely.

Naruto nodded in agreement, "Yeah thanks for everything Hokage-sama I'll make you proud. This promotion didn't go to waste I promise you" he said.

Tsunade chuckled before flashing a small smile to the two, "I know you won't let me down" she said, "Now scram you two the promotion is done and as much as I'd like for you two to stick around unfortunately I have some paperwork to do" she said.

The two nodded before walking out the door, but before they left Tsunade called out to Naruto one more time.

"Oh yeah gaki, Jiraiya and I added a few other things in your storage scroll. We decided it was best you get a new outfit, a bright orange getup is suicide for a ninja so we decided to give you an early gift by buying you a few new clothes to make up a more suitable outfit for a Chunin, let alone a ninja"

"Thanks, I'll see you later Hokage-sama" replied Naruto.

As soon as Naruto and Shikamaru left the office the two stood there in complete silence.

"So, what now?" asked Naruto.

Shikamaru shrugged not knowing what to do either, "Want to come over to mine for some dinner to celebrate the promotion, we could also chill for a bit while waiting for dinner" he replied.

"Yeah sure why not" answered Naruto.

"Cool, so Naruto ever played shogi before?"

* * *

 **With Naruto**

Naruto was on his way back home, he had just finished eating dinner at the Nara household. It was interesting having dinner with the family, from what Naruto saw Shikamaru obviously took after his father more than he did his mother.

During his academy days Shikamaru was one of Naruto's few friends alongside Choji and Kiba because the four of them were the dead lasts of the class, and now here they were the two of them ended up being the first to get promoted to Chunin in their batch. It was a nice feeling eating dinner with the Nara family and he was happy when they told him he was welcome back any time. The dinner itself was delicious but before dinner was ready Naruto played an intriguing game known as shogi against Shikamaru. He hadn't known how to play shogi but Shikamaru taught him the rules of the game, and of the five games he and Shikamaru played he lost all of it but that was to be expected after all Shikamaru had been playing shogi for years. But that only left Naruto determined to one day try and beat the lazy Nara at his own game.

On his way, back to his apartment Naruto couldn't help but glance over at the Hokage Monument, a small yet genuine smile gracing his face as he stared over at the faces of his heroes.

"One step closer to having my face up there along with them"

* * *

 **Author's Note**

Well here is my first chapter guys hope you all enjoyed it because I enjoyed writing it. This was tons of fun and I was really intrigued by the premise of this story. Looking back at it I still really do think Naruto should have been promoted to Chunin and the fact we never really even saw him get promoted was a major letdown. But anyway if you guys have any questions or suggestions please leave a review or pm me and I'll try my best to answer in time. Check out my other stories as well and my profile because there will be more stories and updates to come soon enough. Thanks again everyone.


	2. Bells

The Will of Fire

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

 **Author's Notice: Hey everyone I'm back with the latest chapter for some of my stories, I cannot thank you guys enough for the overwhelming support for my news stories most notably this one. It really surprised me how successful their debuts were, and all of that was thanks to you guys. Hope you guys continue supporting and tuning into my stories, as I said before my schedule has freed up so now I can probably update a bit more regularly. Last semester my schedule was packed but now it's chilled down a bit giving me a lot freer time for other activities such as this one right here.**

 **Also for those people wondering about Naruto's intelligence or his tactical ability don't worry. My plan is to have Naruto slowly but surely improve himself in those regards but he won't suddenly turn a quick 180 and become like Kakashi 2.0 or something. He'll keep the endearing factors about him while slowly gaining more and more tactical knowledge and intelligence, I never liked how Naruto was always so quick to rush into things but I get that it's a part of his character. He'll still have that but at the same time it will tone down eventually with experience and whatnot, as he begins to learn the true nature of being a ninja let alone a Chunin. He'll begin to experience how he can't simply run into every conflict.**

 **Also for those wondering yes, I decided to change the first chapter of my story the Legendary Three, I was working on the plan for the future chapters of my story and with my original premise I found that the plot ended up being too generic and basic so I changed it. I don't know how you guys will feel about it but I decided to experiment with the idea so I re-created the first chapter all over again and this time when I worked on the future chapter plans personally for me I found it more unique and interesting compared to my original ones. Also for those interested there is also now a poll on my profile concerning the possible Kekkei Genkai combos Naruto will have the in the story so if you're interested please head over and vote. I'll probably only leave it for a week or two. Once again sorry about the change of my story but thanks to you guys anyway for the support, I hope you all bear with me because I personally for one believe this new premise is much more promising than the original especially at how it strongly relates Team Seven to the Sannin more and more. I really wanted to parallel the two groups and this premise gives the best chances for that.**

 **Thanks again everyone for the support, please continue to favorite and follow this story and my other stories. If you guys also have any questions or suggestions for any of my stories feel free to leave a review or to pm me. I'll try my best to answer any questions or concerns. I really appreciate all the love and support and thanks so much guys. Hope you guys enjoy the latest chapter.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Bells**

The young blonde groggily stood up from his bed, he hazily used his arm to wipe his eyes before a large yawn escaped his mouth. Naruto grunted something indiscernible as he was forced to wake up from the knocks on his door. It was so early in the morning and he was still deprived of the proper eight hours of sleep he craved. The newly promoted Chunin gingerly walked over to the door, and upon opening it he was rather annoyed not to find anyone there. Instead there was a plume of smoke and a small note on the ground, Naruto before reading the note already knew this was Kakashi's doing.

He then picked up the small note on the floor and briefly read it, it confirmed to him it really was from his sensei. It told him to meet by Team Seven's usual training ground later that day for a quick meeting then team training now that everyone was back and fully recovered.

Naruto headed back to his home to get ready quickly, he cooked himself a quick and simple breakfast before going to shower and change into his new Chunin uniform for the first time. The young blonde checked himself out in the mirror after changing and although his new outfit really lacked orange, he had to admit it looked pretty good. He couldn't help but smirk proudly at his new uniform, this was the symbol and the representation of his new promotion and his major achievement of becoming a Chunin.

The young blonde had on a long-sleeved black shirt with his Chunin vest on top, with it was black pants which had a kunai holster attached by the right thigh. Then finally he had standard black sandals to go with the look. Along the pockets of his pants and the chunin vest Naruto held his new equipment, on the breast pocket was the latest bingo book, and attached to the lower back of his new vest was a small tanto ready to be used at any moment.

With everything prepared and ready Naruto headed out in search of his team in their training grounds, he only hoped that this time Kakashi wouldn't be late. He had to wake up early today and if that was all for naught Naruto would be annoyed.

* * *

 **Training Ground**

Kakashi sat on top of one of the log stumps in the training ground reading his Icha Icha book, he was waiting patiently for the final member of his team. Earlier that day he had already called Sakura and Sasuke and those two were waiting alongside him, in all honesty it hadn't been that long thus far he just chose to notify Naruto last since his house was the most out of the way from his three students.

As per usual Sasuke was sitting down patiently while Sakura tried talking to him but of course her effects were all ignored by the stoic Uchiha.

Kakashi paid no attention to his two other students by now he was used to their usual antics, but he was really looking out for Naruto's arrival. The Jonin could barely contain the small grin on his face, lucky for him he had his mask help him conceal it from the others. He had gotten news yesterday of Naruto's promotion alongside Shikamaru and he couldn't be prouder of the young Uzumaki.

Naruto had worked hard for this and he proved to Kakashi and many others that he would be a formidable ninja in the future. And speak of the devil the young blonde arrived walking over to the trio at a cruisy pace with his hands on his pocket. Kakashi smiled as he closed his book and placed it back on his pocket, Sakura and Sasuke also noticed the arrival of Naruto and the two were surprised to say the least concerning Naruto's change of attire.

The newly promoted Chunin waved his hands at his team, "Hey guys long time no see, good to be back" Naruto greeted exuberantly.

Sakura's eyes widened in shock as Naruto grew closer and as she managed to get a closer look towards Naruto's new outfit, "Kakashi-sensei what's with Naruto's new outfit? Is it what I think it is?" she asked in utter disbelief.

Kakashi chuckled and nodded at Sakura, "Hai Naruto over here just got recently promoted to Chunin by the new Godaime Hokage Tsunade-sama" he explained before proudly ruffling Naruto's spiky hair, "Congratulations on the new promotion Naruto, I'm proud of you".

Naruto beamed at the masked jonin, "Thanks Kakashi-sensei, I still can't believe I was made Chunin by the old lady" he replied loudly.

Sakura and Sasuke remained rather silent in utter disbelief that Naruto would be the first to get promoted to Chunin among the three of them, it was a safe bet it would've been Sasuke but it appears the underdog ended up getting promoted first.

"Hey guys what do you think? Pretty cool, right?" Naruto asked confidently as he turned around to proudly brag about his new uniform.

"Naruto is this some sort of prank because if it is this isn't funny, did you really get promoted to Chunin?" asked the lone kunoichi of Team Seven.

Naruto nodded profusely, "Yeah Sakura-chan can you believe it? It feels cool no longer being a genin" he replied swiftly with a smile on his face.

"Wow, I guess congratulations are in order. Nice one Naruto, are you the only who's been promoted?"

Naruto shook his head, "No it's not just me Sakura-chan, Shikamaru was also promoted to Chunin" he admitted.

' **Cha what the fuck, how did those two dead lasts get promoted before Sasuke-kun?'** Inner Sakura asked in utter disbelief.

'I know what you mean inner, but to be fair Naruto has grown stronger. I mean Sasuke-kun admitted he did singlehandedly beat that Gaara guy. Maybe the idea of Naruto getting promoted isn't as far-fetched, but Shikamaru as well? That lazy bastard how did he get promoted?'

' **I know right, but still how did they get promoted but Sasuke-kun wasn't? It just doesn't seem right cha'** complained Inner Sakura.

"Hey Sakura-chan you alright?" Naruto asked out of concern.

Sakura blinked before shaking her head, "Yeah I'm alright just lost a bit of focus for a second there" she replied with a nervous chuckle.

Naruto nodded, "Okay then I believe you I guess" he replied before looking at Sasuke, he nodded at the young Uchiha but Sasuke simply scowled refusing to acknowledge Naruto or his promotion.

The young blonde raised a single eyebrow, "What's his problem?" he asked himself.

Kakashi noticed this and decided to break the tension, "Congratulations again Naruto, I heard about your promotion yesterday and I decided to call a meeting for a few reasons. One being to properly congratulate you for being promoted to Chunin, I remember when I was first promoted, it was one of the proudest days of my life and I'm sure it's yours as well" he said.

"What's the other two reasons then sensei?" asked Naruto.

"The first is to gauge all your skills again, it's been a while since we've been a proper team again with the whole Chunin exams and everything after then. You've all trained with different people around that time and now I just want to see how much everyone has progressed since our last proper time as a team" he explained, "The other reason is to discuss the new team dynamics now that Naruto is a Chunin. I'm sure Tsunade-sama already explained everything to you Naruto, but now that you're an actual Chunin you won't have to be with this team all the time. You may be sent on other missions with other teams or you might choose to join other missions you see fit. In the instance of that or whenever you are in a mission with us I'd like to discuss how the team will function. Everyone understand?"

"Hai Kakashi-sensei" replied Naruto and Sakura, as Sasuke simply nodded in understanding.

Kakashi clapped his hands before pulling something out his back pocket, he revealed a pair of bells bringing out a sense of nostalgia to the team.

"You three already knows what's the point of this exercise. I'll put the timer to thirty minutes, I won't be holding back this time but that only means I'll be expecting you three to work together this time. I want a proper challenge unlike last time and I'm looking forward to seeing how much you three have grown since then" he said before vanishing leaving a plume of smoke.

The three genin shielded their eyes as the smoke engulfed the area, soon as it disappeared so did Kakashi as the Jonin was nowhere to be seen.

"Dammit Kakashi-sensei is back at it with his tricks" said Naruto, "Alright guys let's go look for Kakashi-sensei" he said before summoning ten shadow clones to help him look all over the place.

Sasuke scowled before unleashing his Sharingan to help him search for their sensei, Sakura decided to go follow Sasuke in hopes they'll soon find their sensei.

The original Naruto ran all around the training grounds in search of Kakashi, then for a quick second he stopped as he felt one of his clones disappear. He felt an odd sensation as if he just saw the trap that defeated his shadow clone, after a few more seconds he felt a few more of those sensations. He could now tell and perfectly remember just what those traps were and where those traps were place.

'Huh what an odd feeling, I might have to ask sensei about it later' he thought to himself.

He continued to run aimlessly until he felt one of his shadow clones being dispelled by Kakashi himself, he then grinned and summoned a few more shadow clones, their duty was to find and gather Sakura and Sasuke while he went after Kakashi himself.

The young blonde ran towards the direction of his sensei and there he found him leaning towards a tree reading his book.

"Oh, I see you found me Naruto. Quite impressive indeed" he said before placing the book in his pocket, "Now show me what you got"

Naruto grinned before running at Kakashi engaging him in a small taijutsu fight, he went in with a flurry of attacks but of course they were neutralized by Kakashi. But he had to admit Naruto's taijutsu wasn't as sloppy or random as it was once, it was still a bit unrefined but improved significantly since their first bout. Naruto then jumped back seeing how taijutsu wasn't working at all.

He wiped away the small blood stain on his cheek before unleashing a hand seal, **"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu"** he yelled. Now he summoned ten shadow clones and all of them jumped at Kakashi.

This time Kakashi was serious, he pulled out a kunai and began to quickly slash away Naruto's clones before landing a proper kick to the original's gut. But as soon as Naruto was sent back flying from that kick, he heard a voice from the opposite direction.

" **Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu"**

He turned back to see Sasuke arriving with Sakura as well, Kakashi reacted quickly forming new hand seals himself. Naruto saw this he quickly stopped nursing his gut and he summoned a shadow clone to help him with his jutsu.

Kakashi on the other hand yelled out **"Doton: Doryūheki"** as a wall of earth sprung forth from the ground protecting him from Sasuke's attack, as soon as the fire died down the wall fell back to the earth.

It was then Naruto decided to strike, he jumped at Kakashi and the Jonin only just noticed him in the last second, he used a **Shunshin** to replace his body with a nearby tree stump.

" **Rasengan"** yelled Naruto.

Naruto then plunged the blue ball of chakra into the tree stump causing it to explode and blast off far away from the sheer impact and strength of the attack.

Sakura and Sasuke were shocked at the jutsu, they couldn't believe a power like that came from Naruto.

The young Uchiha clenched his fists, 'What the fuck was that? It seemed stronger than my Chidori' Sasuke thought to himself in anger and frustration.

"Whoa that was cool, what was that Naruto?" asked Sakura.

The Chunin cursed his luck his sensei managed to escape just in time before appearing just behind him a second later, he put his right hand on Naruto's shoulder with his left hand placing a kunai to his back so that he wouldn't attack him.

Kakashi couldn't help but whistle in appreciation of the jutsu, "Impressive Naruto it seems Jiraiya taught you well. I'm amazed you managed to learn the Rasengan already, quite the power A-Rank jutsu is it not?" he asked.

Naruto grimaced as he felt the kunai scratching his back, "Yeah I guess you could say that sensei, Ero-Sennin taught it to me and I managed to get it down in a month" he admitted proudly.

Kakashi nodded, "A month you say? Not bad, not bad at all" he replied before jumping back to give himself space, "But you still have a long way to go"

The Jonin then began to unleash his own Rasengan in his right hand, Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief before pointing at Kakashi in shock.

"What the hell sensei? You know the Rasengan as well?" he yelled in disbelief.

Kakashi nodded with a smile underneath his mask, "Why yes Naruto, I'm one of the few people who knows this jutsu. I mean I was bound to learn it, I was the Yondaime's student after all" he replied.

"Kakashi-sensei what is this jutsu anyway?" Sakura questioned curiously.

"This my dear Sakura is called the Rasengan, one of Konoha's most powerful and notorious jutsus. It is an A-Rank jutsu created by my sensei the Yondaime Hokage and it took him four years to create it. Since then only Jiraiya-sama of the Sannin and I have learned how to form this jutsu, until Naruto here"

Sakura's expression was of utter disbelief as well, she couldn't believe that Naruto managed to learn a jutsu so rare and powerful. Maybe she really did misjudge Naruto, I mean he did show his strength and skill in the Chunin Exams, it turns out he isn't really a dead last after all.

"Enough of this talk let's continue" yelled Sasuke as he ran at Kakashi while forming hand seals.

" **Chidori"**

Kakashi turned to dodge the attack before landing yet another powerful punch this time of Sasuke's gut.

Sasuke skidded a few meters back before cursing his luck, Sakura then ran up throwing a few shuriken at Kakashi but the Jonin managed to quickly dismantle them with his kunai. Until Naruto jumped up again with a brand new Rasengan, he jumped up to dodge their attack instead colliding the jutsu with a nearby tree. While up in the air Kakashi braced himself for yet another attack from Sasuke.

" **Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu"**

This time Kakashi defended himself with **Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu** knowing that water would beat fire.

Kakashi then landed back on the ground and as he did his stopwatch conveniently rang marking the end of the thirty minutes, he clapped his hands marking the end of the exercise and although he was practically unscathed he was impressed. I mean after all no one expected the three of them to defeat Kakashi in his own game after all.

"Quite impressive you three, you've all grown especially you Naruto and I'm more than proud to witness you all grow right in front of me. You three still have a long way to go but you three should feel proud of how much you've grown, and as for you Naruto you really showed me today that you do deserve the rank of Chunin. The Rasengan is a powerful jutsu so use it well and be careful with it, in the wrong hands it could be devastating" he explained.

Naruto nodded his head in understanding, "Hai sensei arigato" he replied before Kakashi ruffled his hair.

"But remember Naruto, in fact this goes out to the three of you. Never feel satisfied, you can always improve one way or another and the worst thing you can do is stagnate no matter how strong you are, because there is always someone out there growing stronger"

"Hai sensei" replied the three students.

"Well then with that out of the way we have to go onto team dynamics with and without Naruto. As a Chunin Naruto will not be able to join us for every mission seeing how he might be called forth for other missions by the Hokage herself, and in the chance of that we either carry forth as a three-man team or sometimes we might have another genin or even a Chunin every now and then join us for that mission. Seeing how we'll most likely only deal with C-Rank missions the most we're more likely to have another genin replace Naruto for the duration of the mission"

"What about when Naruto's with us then sensei?" asked pinkette.

"Well when Naruto is with us he shall effectively be second-in-command straight after me" said Kakashi as both Sasuke and Sakura's jaws fell to the ground, "Say it isn't so sensei. Are you sure about this?" asked the kunoichi in distress.

Kakashi nodded, "Yup it's only fair seeing how he outranks you two. Look past the Naruto of old, Naruto proved himself enough to deserve the title of Chunin and in ninja rulebook the leadership goes down from ranks, until you two both reach the level of Chunin Naruto will remain my number two" he replied.

Naruto cheered jubilantly, "Hell yeah that sounds cool sensei" roared the young blonde while raising both hands into the air.

"Don't let it get to your head though Naruto, you'll still have to follow my orders" warned Kakashi, "And if I hear about you misusing that privilege I could take it away as easy as I granted it"

Naruto gulped nervously before rubbing the back of his head, "Don't worry sensei you won't regret your choice, I won't screw this up I promise" he answered back.

"But overall, I do believe in Naruto's ability and you two should as well, he is your teammate and you two have witnessed what he can really do" Kakashi said directing it into Sasuke and Sakura, "Naruto has shown an unorthodox ability in tactics and strategy but he is quite skilled in it, it is just very unconventional. Our mission in Nami no Kuni showed that, Naruto managed to save me from Zabuza and Naruto even managed to defeat Neji and Kiba with strange tactics. He can do it"

"Very well Kakashi-sensei, I guess we don't really have a choice on the matter" Sakura sighed in defeat.

"Ok then, with that done I suppose we can start training as a team again" he said as he eyed the three of his students, "All three of you have different skills and varying levels of powers and different specialties and I think it would be best to train you all differently"

"Ok then what do you have in mind then sensei?" asked Naruto.

Kakashi's glanced over to the young Uchiha, "Well for you Sasuke the plan is to help you out a bit more with the Chidori and work on your Sharingan a bit more" he answered as Sasuke nodded in understanding.

"As for you Sakura, you will be trained in increasing your chakra reserves and physical fitness. From what I saw a while ago Sakura you still lack the chakra and physical stamina required from a ninja, but you do possess amazing chakra control. But before I could teach you some jutsus we'll first need to increase your chakra reserves so that you won't suffer from chakra exhaustion"

"Then finally there's you Naruto, we'll have to work on your chakra control but I can also help you out with your Rasengan. We can make it more powerful and more efficient if we can improve your chakra control so that you won't have to use a shadow clone to form the Rasengan. Other than that, I believe it's time we uncover your elemental affinity"

"Elemental affinity?"

Kakashi nodded, "That is the element you are naturally best skilled in, personally for me its lightning. Usually this is a skill Chunin begin to learn but a few genin are gifted by learning this earlier on, an example of such is Sasuke. He may be a genin but he has begun to learn lightning but also other than that he also has a natural affinity towards fire. It's very rare to see someone your age with one element let alone two" he explained.

Sasuke smirked proudly while Sakura cheered by hearing that, "Wow that's so cool Sasuke-kun" she yelled but to no avail seeing how Sasuke quickly brushed it off as nothing. The opinions of Sakura didn't matter to him, it was only Kakashi and Naruto. So far for him Sakura had yet to do something to catch his attention, Kakashi and Naruto on the other hand has seeing how deceptively skilled they were.

"So when will we start training then?" Sasuke asked growing excited by the prospect of improving his Chidori and Sharingan skills.

"That will have to wait tomorrow, I'll train all of you individually. Two of you will have a shadow clone accompany you while one of you will have the real me train you, so that no one feels there is any favoritism I won't tell you which one is the real me. But tomorrow me and my clones will each pick one of you up and we will train in different areas of Konoha, areas best suited for the training regimen I have planned for the three of you"

"Before then however we are all going to eat out as a team, in Ichiraku's Ramen" said Kakashi as Naruto jumped up and down out of excitement, "I think it's only fair I treat you three out to some food not only to celebrate the reunion of Team Seven but for Naruto's promotion as well"

"Well then let's go guys Ichiraku's Ramen is waiting" Naruto yelled excitedly, his two teammates sighed at this but they had to come along regardless, Sakura was at least happy she had more chances to spend a little bit more time with Sasuke.

Kakashi could only chuckle as he watched his three students, so much has changed in the past few months and yet it appears nothing changed from the three of them. They were still very much like the three snot-nosed brats he first met during their first team meeting on the rooftops.

"I hope you three brats never change" he told himself as he watched the three of them run off"

* * *

 **The Next Day**

Naruto was in the process of washing his dishes from breakfast when he heard yet another knock on his door, this time upon opening it he was already prepared for the day and unlike the last time there was no plume of smoke and note on the ground, instead it was Kakashi himself in the flesh right in front of his door.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, you ready to begin training?" he asked exuberantly.

Kakashi nodded as he smirked underneath his mask, "Yo Naruto I'm ready, I'll bring us to our training ground" he said before grabbing Naruto by the wrist and using Shunshin to take them to their training grounds in a mere few seconds.

"Alright then Naruto you already know what we are going to train in, it's time you learn your element. But before then I should probably give you a lecture about the five basic elements, there are Fire, Earth, Lightning, Water and Wind. Everyone has an affinity to one but some people are blessed with an affinity to two or even three elements and those people contain a very rare power known as a Kekkei Genkai. The Sharingan and Byakugan are also Kekkei Genkai but they are of the Dojutsu sort while there are also elemental ones" he explained as Naruto tried to wrap his head around all this new knowledge.

"An example of an elemental Kekkei Genkai would be Haku's with his Ice Release, it is a combination of both Wind and Water, when a person has a natural affinity for both he or she is given the Kekkei Genkai of Ice. Other examples would be the Shodai Hokage's Wood Release with his natural affinity for both Earth and Water. Do you follow me so far Naruto?"

"Yeah I think I kind of understand it so far sensei" replied the young blonde.

"Well then from the five basic elements all of them have an advantage over one of the other elements and have a weakness against one. The rotation goes as such: Fire is strong against Wind but weak to Water, Earth is strong against Water but weak against Lightning, Water is strong against Fire but weak against Earth, Lightning is strong against Earth but Weak against Wind, and finally Wind is strong against Lightning but weak against fire"

With that said Kakashi then handed Naruto a strange piece of paper which the blonde stared at out of confusion, "What's this supposed to be sensei?" asked the blonde.

"That Naruto is called Chakra paper it is what you use to learn what your natural affinity is. When you apply chakra to it the paper will begin to alter in a certain way. If your affinity is towards fire the paper will ignite, with water it will turn damp, with earth the paper will turn to dirt and crumble away, with lightning it will wrinkle and with wind it will be cut in two" he replied before pulling out another piece of chakra paper for himself.

Kakashi held out the paper and applied a small amount of chakra to it and soon the paper began to wrinkle indicating his affinity was towards lightning, "As you can see Naruto this shows us that my affinity is lightning, and depending on what you get I'll make a training routine for you" he said.

Naruto nodded before concentrating on the piece of chakra paper, the young blonde breathed nervously before applying his own chakra to the piece of paper. After a few tense seconds, the paper began to slowly slice itself in two. Naruto's eyes widened in shock while Kakashi simply watched on in intrigue.

"Interesting it turns out your natural affinity is towards wind" he replied as Naruto smiled brightly, "Wind is one of the more attack based elements in the spectrum and it can be quite powerful. But unfortunately for you Naruto wind is the one element I cannot use just yet, had you gotten lightning, earth, water or fire I could have easily taught you a thing or two but unfortunately I cannot use wind"

"Most of the wind users can be found in the Land of Wind, the lands as you can guess are all named after the main affinities most commonly found in the region. We are in the Land of Fire and as such the most common affinity is to fire, and the same idea goes for the Land of Water with the element of water, the Land of Earth with the element of earth, and of course the Land of Lightning with the element of lightning"

Naruto clenched his fists in frustration, "Dammit why can't I catch a break. Don't you know anyone who can teach me wind though?" he asked in annoyance of his poor luck.

Kakashi nodded, "Lucky for you Naruto I do in fact know someone who is perfect for that role. I for one cannot train you in wind but if so ever you do acclimatize yourself with that element and when you're ready to branch off to a new element I'll be more than willing to train you in a second element. But for now, you'll have to learn off my friend, much like you he has a natural affinity for wind. Quite a rare thing in the Land of Fire, there are only a few natural wind users in Konoha"

"Ok who is this person then?"

"It's the Jonin sensei of Team Ten, Asuma Sarutobi"

"Oh, Shikamaru's sensei?"

"Yup we can go talk to him now if you want. I'm sure he'll be more than willing to help with your elemental training"

"Ok then Kakashi-sensei, oh but before we do go there's something I want to ask you"

"Sure thing Naruto shoot"

"It has something to do with shadow clones, during our bell test yesterday I noticed something strange. When my clones from afar were dispelled by the traps you laid out, I felt as if I was there. It was weird I can't exactly pinpoint what that was"

Kakashi knew exactly what it was, "That is actually the reason behind why that jutsu is considered an A-Rank jutsu, other than its taxing chakra usage. The jutsu was developed by the Nidaime Hokage not only for combat but for information gathering. When a clone is dispelled the memories transfer back to the user and as such this was a technique used by many spies and the like. Actually now that you mention it Naruto it can be used with your training routine"

"How so?"

"Normally a person cannot sustain this sort of routine but a person of your immense chakra reserves might be able to do just that. The shadow clone jutsu once dispelled delivers its knowledge back to the original and if so then we could teach your shadow clones a few jutsus and when they dispel you will have learned that jutsu yourself"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock, "Whoa that sounds so cool" he yelled in excitement.

"But watch out though Naruto, when you dispel shadow clones with knowledge make sure to dispel them slowly a bit at a time to allow your brain to process all that information. If you were to instantly dispel hundreds of shadow clones at once after having them learn one jutsu each then you'll only bombard your brain with too much information. You'll only end up frying your brain in the end so watch out for that this might bite you in the butt if you're not careful"

The young blonde gulped nervously before nodding in response, "Hai sensei I'll make sure not to overuse it too much" he replied.

Kakashi nodded, "To keep things safe I recommend sticking to only around twenty clones or something and as you get used to it we'll build up to more, but now that is more than enough to speed up the process. Also another word of warning don't relax thinking you have this skill everything will be easy, this cannot help with your physical ability. If you make a clone do a hundred pushups all that work won't transport to your body so you still have to put in the hard yards yourself" he explained.

"Alright sensei I'll keep that in mind"

"Good, now let's head off and look for Asuma shall we"

* * *

 **With Team Ten**

Asuma watched on as his team trained in their respective clan techniques for the devastating effects of an Ino-Shika-Cho trio. The team had just celebrated the day before at their usual BBQ joint at the surprising promotion of their one and only Shikamaru Nara. Asuma was proud of his student he saw something in him and although he could be a lazy slacker most of the time, when he actually tried he proved to be a quite the formidable foe.

From his two students, Choji was pleasantly surprised at the promotion of his best friend while Ino was in a state of shock and disbelief. Her state was further enhanced when she heard that Naruto was the only other person to be promoted to Chunin. How Naruto and Shikamaru two of the dead lasts of the academy got promoted to Chunin before Sasuke Uchiha their rookie of the year was beyond her. Choji on the other hand was once again happy for Naruto as well, him and Shikamaru were two of his friends growing up alongside Kiba. The four of them were troublemakers in class always ditching class, playing pranks of the teachers, never paying attention and even sleeping during the lectures.

Asuma continued to focus on his three students, it appears their chemistry was improving with each passing day, maybe one day they could reach the heights of their fathers before them. The Sarutobi was soon brought back to earth when he heard a familiar voice call out to him from not so far away.

"There you are Asuma, I've been looking for you" said the voice, the Sandaime's son turned around to see his fellow Jonin sensei Kakashi walking over with his own student Naruto by his side.

"Hey there Kakashi, how's it going?" he greeted, unknown to him his three students ceased their exercises when they noticed their arriving visitors.

Ino's eyes widened in shock as the sight of Naruto in his Chunin uniform, "Well I'll be damned, looks like the lazy bum wasn't lying after all. Seriously how did it end up with you two earning the promotions" Ino complained to the lazy Nara.

Shikamaru merely sighed at the platinum blonde girl, "Troublesome, have a little faith" he replied before raising his hand to greet his fellow Chunin Naruto.

"Yo Naruto" he said.

Naruto waved back with a smile, "Hey Shika how's it going. Good to see you too Ino and Choji" he greeted as the two genin waved back at their former classmate.

Asuma shook Kakashi's hand firmly, "So what brings you two to my neck of the woods?" he asked jokingly.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, "Well Asuma I came here to ask you a favor" he replied.

"A favor what kind?" he asked while squinting his eyes at the masked Jonin, "Because if it has something to do with Icha Icha again forget it, Kurenai almost killed me when she found out"

Kakashi waved his hands while chuckling nervously, "No it isn't anything like that, it has to do with Naruto. I tested his elemental affinity and it turns out he has a natural affinity towards wind and as you know that is the one element I am unfamiliar with" he replied swiftly.

Asuma nodded in understanding, "I see, well as a fellow wind-user I'll be glad to help Naruto out" he replied, the young blonde beside Kakashi pumped his fists up in celebration.

"Hell yeah thanks Asuma-sensei"

The Sandaime's son chuckled, "No problem Naruto" he replied before turning back to his three original students, "Well gang it looks like Naruto will be joining us for training from time to time. I'll be having to teach Naruto some wind techniques but you guys can carry on with your Ino-Shika-Cho formations and joint techniques"

The three nodded in result before carrying on with their training before the arrival of the two visitors from Team Seven. Asuma then turned back to Naruto and Kakashi, "Keen to start today Naruto?" he asked as Naruto nodded furiously.

"Someone seems excited well then I suppose I can show you one or two of the simplest yet versatile wind jutsus there are" he said but before he could carry on Kakashi tapped Naruto on the shoulders.

"Naruto, I promised to help you out with your Rasengan and as we discussed before if you can summon a few shadow clones I can take those shadow clones and work on that jutsu on them while you and a few of your other shadow clones work on some of that elemental training with Asuma"

The young blonde agreed before carrying on summoning ten shadow clones, Kakashi decided to go and take the ten with him. He planned on splitting them up into two groups of five, one would focus on more chakra control while the other half will work on the Rasengan.

But before Kakashi could leave he heard Asuma call out to him, "Wait Kakashi did I just hear that right? Did you mention the Rasengan?" he questioned sternly.

Kakashi grinned underneath his mask, "Yeah Naruto here learned the Rasengan, he's still a bit unrefined with it but in time he might end up as good as Minato-sensei was with the jutsu" he answered confidently.

Asuma was left shocked by that statement, he looked down at the grinning Uzumaki kid before shaking his head, "Turns out you really are full of surprised aren't you kid" he said before leading Naruto to a different area of the training field.

Once they were a bit farther away from Asuma's three genin students, he grabbed a few leaves from the tree while displaying it to Naruto.

"One exercise to help you get a hang of using the element of wind is by slicing this leaf with your wind chakra alone like this" he said before applying chakra to slice the leaf in half like he said, "It won't be anything like chakra paper since a normal leaf won't be affected as much by chakra as chakra paper is"

"Other than that, I suppose I can teach you a basic wind jutsu or two as well, these are both simple C-Rank jutsus and I'm sure you'll be able to learn them in due time" he said before weaving through a few hand seals, **"Fūton: Daitoppa"** he yelled before unleashing a strong gust of wind to nearly uproot a nearby tree. Naruto stood in place with goosebumps appearing on his skin.

"That was so freaking cool" he yelled out excitedly, "You mean to tell me that's one of the simpler wind jutsus? What's the other one?"

"The other one is best used with projectiles such as shuriken since it strongly enhances the strength in which they are thrown" he answered before throwing a few shuriken at a nearby tree trunk, he then swiftly performed the necessary hand seals for his other jutsu, **"Fūton: Reppūshō"** he yelled.

The strong gust of wind accompanied the projectiles increasing their speed and power until they managed to fully lodge themselves into the thick trunk of the tree.

Naruto couldn't help but grin at the prospect of learning those techniques, they would surely make him much stronger than he was today.

"It would be good to learn these basic wind jutsus Naruto but remember prioritize the leaf cutting technique first" he explained.

"But why sensei? Why can't I just learn those jutsus instead? Why do I have to put some of my shadow clones to learning that leaf thing when I can just learn those jutsus already?"

"Simple Naruto, that is because you must first learn to master the use of wind chakra. You can theoretically learn and use those jutsus already but their power will be lacking from what I just showed you, if you first master using wind chakra then all of your wind attacks will be much more potent and devastating" he explained before showing a half-assed version of the same jutsus he just used a while ago. Although they still did the job they lacked the power and effectiveness of the ones prior to his original showing.

"As you can see Naruto if you first master the usage of wind chakra the power and quality of your attacks with be much stronger, that and it will help you learn the more advanced and powerful wind techniques. Now, you are learning C-Rank techniques, if you want to learn the B-Rank, A-Rank and even S-Rank you must really perfect your control of wind chakra"

"Very well sensei, I guess I understand. Let's get started then" he replied with a grin before summoning ten more shadow clones. He split them into two groups with five working on the two jutsus, while the original Naruto and the other five clones worked on the leaf cutting exercise.

Asuma simply smiled watching Naruto try his hardest, "You saw something in this kid dad and I guess I'll trust your judgement this time. If a kid this age could learn the Rasengan already I'm sure he'll be able to learn some pretty powerful jutsus soon enough" he slowly muttered to himself outside of Naruto's hearing range.

* * *

 **Later that Day**

Naruto was walking back to his apartment covered in sweat, he was panting uncontrollably. He was making progress with the two wind jutsus and the Rasengan, but he was finding the leaf cutting exercise a bit more difficult. He asked Asuma for advice and the Jonin gave him the best advice he could but this was something Naruto really had to find out and experience himself. Asuma knew it was going to take Naruto a lot of time to master this but he had faith in the boy, he could early on how determined and dedicated he was to his craft and eventually his hard work will pay off.

On his way, back though he accidentally stumbled upon his kunoichi teammate walking back to her own place nursing her own bruises. He watched her from afar and he could tell she too was covered in sweat probably from the intense training from Kakashi. With his remaining energy, he ran over to her, he called out her name in the streets.

"Hey Sakura-chan" he yelled while waving his arms, the pinkette turned back and found his Chunin teammate gingerly running towards her, she hesitantly waved back but she could barely do so due to the soreness of her body.

"Hey Naruto, how was your training with Kakashi-sensei?" she asked while the two walked off to a random direction.

"It was pretty cool, it turns out I have a natural affinity for wind so Kakashi-sensei asked Asuma-sensei for help in teaching me since Asuma-sensei also knew how to use wind" he explained, "He then showed me some cool jutsus and whatnot"

"That's nice, why are you following me though Naruto? Isn't your house like the opposite direction of mine?" she asked curiously.

Naruto chuckled while scratching the back of his head, "Well yeah but I decided it would be cool to catch a up a bit just the two of us. Speaking of which want to come with me to Ichiraku's sometime?" he asked almost pleadingly.

Sakura thought about it for a bit but shook her head in the end, "No I'm alright Naruto thanks anyway, I'm on a strict diet and I wouldn't want ramen to get me fat or something" she replied.

Naruto looked dejected for a few seconds, something Sakura easily took note of. But then he bounced back with a smile, "That's alright then Sakura-chan maybe next time" he replied. Soon the two walked in relative silence, it wasn't awkward it was more of the sense that they were far too tired as it was.

Until they finally reached Sakura's house, the two stood by the doorstep. Sakura didn't really need Naruto to walk her back but it felt kind of nice for someone to do that for her, "Well then Naruto I guess I'll see you again sometime soon, thanks for walking me back" she said before entering her house.

Naruto waved a small goodbye, "Yeah see you Sakura-chan" he said in a meek tone. He still felt bad about the rejection all he wanted was for he to acknowledge him and if she were to accept one of her dates then he knew he was going to treat her right, but that was easier said than done seeing how she never really accepted any of his date requests and how she seemed madly in love with Sasuke instead of him. He began to walk back with his hands in his pockets as he kicked the rocks in his way, he couldn't help but clench his jaw at the thought of how Sasuke treated her.

Sasuke had no idea how lucky he was, for Naruto he'd do anything to capture the heart of Sakura but for the Uchiha all he had to do was give her the time of day and she would be swooning. He couldn't help but feel jealous of his rival, this was the one thing that annoyed Naruto, how he would do anything for Sakura and yet she still loved the teme despite how bad he's treated her.

Unknown to Naruto the door to Sakura's house opened yet again and he failed to hear small footsteps running towards him. He was caught off guard when he felt someone grab his hand, turn him around and hug him. He opened his eyes and an immediate blush adorned his face at the sight of Sakura.

"S-S-Sakura-chan?" he stuttered nervously.

"I forgot to thank you for saving me from Gaara" she replied swiftly as a blush also adorned her own face, "Sasuke-kun told me about it and I couldn't believe it. I wouldn't be here today had it not been for you saving me that day"

Naruto nodded not knowing really what to say, "Any time Sakura-chan you know I'd do anything for you" he replied. Sakura looked up at him and smiled, she then tiptoed a bit before giving Naruto a small peck on the cheek causing the two of them to blush up a storm.

Naruto felt like he was in heaven but then he was brought back down to earth as a fist collided with his head, "Ow Sakura-chan what was that for?" he asked as he nursed the bump on his head.

"That was a onetime thing alright Naruto, if I hear you told anyone about this prepare yourself for a world of hurt you hear me?" she yelled in anger but Naruto noticed there wasn't any real malice in her voice and he could still see a tinge of red on her cheeks.

Naruto chuckled softly before nodding his head, "Yeah alright Sakura-chan don't worry. I guess I'll see you around" he said as he watched Sakura walk back to her house. But unknown to him he failed to see the small smile on the girl's lips.

The young blonde then dusted himself before walking off, this time in a much better mood than a while ago. A smile graced his face as he strutted back to his apartment.

'Maybe things aren't so bad after, maybe just maybe I might have a chance'

* * *

 **Glossary**

Fūton: Reppūshō – Wind Release: Gale Palm

Fūton: Daitoppa – Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

Rasengan – Spiralling Sphere

Chidori – One Thousand Birds

Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu – Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu – Shadow Clone Technique

Doton: Doryūheki – Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall

Shunshin – Body Flicker Technique

Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu – Water Release: Water Bullet Technique

 **Author's Note**

Hey everyone, here is chapter 2 I hope you guys enjoyed. Like I said sorry about the latest remake of the Legendary Three as I said I just felt that this route had more potential than my original one, plus I wanted to experiment with a different type of story seeing how generic and basic some of my stories were getting as if they were following the same plot almost with different premises. Anyway, also check out the poll and vote to see what kind of Kekkei Genkai combo you'd like Naruto to have in the Legendary Three, that poll will only last for like a week or two depending on how I feel. Please continue supporting my work I really appreciate it everyone, please favorite and follow and if you guys have any questions or suggestions feel free to leave a review or to pm me directly. Thanks again everyone hope you all enjoy the latest chapter to my stories.


	3. The Origins of a Legend

The Will of Fire

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

 **Author's Notice: Hello guys, long time no see. I apologize for the delay, but I've been gearing up to start writing again. I've started having more time to myself as of late and I'm grateful since it allows me to write more. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and I really wish to release more and more chapters and updates in the coming future.**

 **Also, I'm thinking of branching out and doing a few other stories spark some more interest up from my part. But it'll probably be after I advance a bit more of my other stories. There're a couple story premises I've been considering, and I want you guys to tell me what you think. These are just ideas but I'm heavily considering them as premises for future stories. But also concerning stories, I've finally come up with a good intro and start for my old story idea "God of Shinobi", where Naruto is trained by the Sandaime Hokage early on. Other than that, I've been thinking of rewriting bits of Yondaime's Legacy, because I feel as if I made Naruto far too OP than I would like at such an early stage, and for those who know me you all know I hate immediate Godlike characters and so forth. One other thing is that I plan on branching out from just Naruto eventually, I'm considering One Piece, the most and maybe even bits of Tokyo Ghoul, Shokugeki no Souma, Attack on Titan or even Bleach.**

 **(JUST SO YOU GUYS KNOW I ADDED A POLL REGARDING THE STORY IDEAS IN MY PROFILE. PLEASE CHECK IT OUT AND VOTE. I'D BE INTERESTED TO KNOW WHAT YOU GUYS WANNA SEE)**

 **Naruto's actual lineage dates to the first Hokage making Naruto an Uzumaki and a Senju. But not only that but he appears to have the power of Mokuton. (To be honest this is the one along with God of Shinobi I'm leaning towards the most.**

 **Naruto is banished after a successful Sasuke Retrieval Mission, but in doing he leaves and finds his way into Kiri after months of wandering and travelling. He then finds himself joining the rebellion against Yagura under the leadership of Mei Terumi.**

 **Naruto managed to reach genin when Iruka promoted him, but because of the lateness of his promotion the Hokage was left with a dilemma since from the 36 kids in the academy, only 31 managed to make it with Naruto. Initially it was easy making ten three-man teams, but instead he was forced to make a team of four people. Introducing team Dead Last: Naruto Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzuka and Choji Akimichi. (Second most likely)**

 **Hashirama and Madara never fully made peace despite Hashirama's tries and so Konoha was never conceived, but in doing so there were two major clans in the land of Fire, the Senju and the Uchiha. With Naruto being born into the Senju with the power of Mokuton.**

 **Naruto being born five years early and instead his younger brother Menma was made the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. Naruto was a prodigy and was a Joinin by 16, and by the age of 18 he was chosen to lead Team Seven which had Sasuke, Sakura and his brother Menma.**

 **Minato and Kushina survived being able to raise their child Naruto, with Minato being the Hokage this allowed Naruto to train and grow up as a genius much like his father.**

 **Naruto by the age of 18 returns to Konoha a much older, stronger and mature man. But not only that but he returns with a 2-year-old daughter, the child he conceived with Shion who he saved during his travels with Jiraiya when he was only 15. With a child that has inherited the Kyuubi's chakra and the priestess powers of Shion, Naruto must do everything to protect her.**

 **The Fourth Great Ninja war raged on for a complete decade, by this time Naruto was Hokage but during a final ditch battle with the Akatsuki, they managed to escape back in time. To counter this Naruto, Darui, Kurotsuchi, Chojuro and Gaara, the five Kages went back in time as well to quell the dangers of Team Taka and the Akatsuki**

 **Showing no skill or promise in ninjutsu or genjutsu, Naruto found himself graduating through a technicality (A year ahead of canon) and instead of Kakashi Hatake he found himself in a team led by none of than Maito Gai. In this team Naruto found his passion for Taijutsu.**

 **By the time Monkey D. Luffy was 16 the Red-Haired Pirates Returned and this time he was made into a member of the legendary pirate crew. He would soon garner himself a bit of a reputation. But by the time he was 21, the young man was ready to set sail with his own crew (This is One Piece by the way for those who don't know)**

 **Well here's a big list of ideas I've come up, they started out as interesting premises, but I've gotten more and more intrigued by them. I'd love to hear what you guys think, and as you already have a clue all the Naruto ones will be NaruSaku. All of them will still focus on Adventure and Romance and that sort of thing anyway. Except maybe #3 since that may focus mostly on friendship and adventure, before any action and romance. Anyway, thanks for bearing with me everyone, I apologize once more but as per usual please favorite, follow and review if you can.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: The Origins of a Legend**

Weeks had since passed since Naruto and Shikamaru's promotion to Chunin, in that span of time the two focused mostly on training due to the lack of missions. They had been offered some basic D-Rank missions but of course neither were quite too keen on the tasks presented to them by those low-ranking missions. Most of which were designed to be more like chores than anything and as such both Chunin decided their time was better used doing something somewhat productive. Naruto having his training sessions, while Shikamaru being far more reluctant than his blonde friend was forced to join in the training due to the insistence and pestering of said blonde. He really did find Naruto quite troublesome.

But after weeks of the same repetitive regimen both Naruto and Shikamaru were suddenly called to the Hokage's office, both presuming it would be for a new mission. Shikamaru of course found it troublesome seeing how it interfered with his favorite hobby, cloud watching. Naruto on the other hand was far more excited to finally get back out on the fields, being holed up doing nothing but training was boring Naruto to death. He absolutely loved to train, hone his skills and grow stronger, but far more than that he wanted to display the fruits of his labor in an actual mission for Konoha.

Both Naruto and Shikamaru entered the Hokage's office and upon arrival they found a familiar presence in front of the Hokage. It took them a second to realize that the presence was Anko Mitarashi, or as Naruto liked to call her 'Crazy Snake Lady'.

"Ah it seems you're both here, well then its time to debrief you two on your next mission" said the Hokage breaking the two newly promoted Chunin from their line of thought.

Naruto and Shikamaru walked forward to the front of the Hokage's desk standing next to Anko, the Hokage looked over the three of them before handing Anko a small Manila folder.

"Alright in this folder Anko will be the details of the mission" he said before turning to the two Chunin, "Today I assigned you three a standard B-Rank mission and of course with Anko here being an experienced Tokubetsu Jonin she'll be the one leading the team in this mission. Understand?"

"Hai Hokage-sama" replied both Naruto and Shikamaru.

"Good in that case you three are dismissed" ordered the Hokage.

The three ninjas soon left the office, and as soon as they out Anko stopped their tracks and stared directly at the two of them as if she were studying the two Chunin.

"Listen here brats, you heard the Hokage I'll be leading this mission and I expect you two to listen to what I say. I don't care if you two did well at the Chunin Exams or whatever, you got to prove to me once more you have what it takes to be Chunin. If you don't follow my orders there will be hell to pay, and trust me if anyone in this village knows how to punish anyone it'll be me" she exclaimed in a tone with held no room for argument.

But of course, Naruto being Naruto just had to play devil's advocate in this situation.

"Hey, listen crazy snake lady, we already proved ourselves to you" he argued in annoyance.

Anko chuckled at the spunk this kid showed towards a superior officer, "Listen whiskers, I think you'll find it mutually beneficial for the both of us if you just shut the fuck up and listen to my orders. Got it?".

"And tell me why that is" Naruto asked in a smug tone.

Shikamaru could only shake his head, he did not want to be a part of this argument right now, but his idiot friend of course had to stir trouble. And to their commanding officer as well, the blonde certainly proved to be more and more trouble than what he was worth.

"Well there's three reasons brat" she declared boldly, "First reason being if you don't I'll punish you accordingly and trust me you don't want that. Secondly, we might die if we don't and knowing your knack of jumping into the fray of things without a moment's notice then it's more likely. Thirdly, well if you play nice and maybe impress me who knows maybe you might be able to get a reward from me or something" she said that last bit in a slightly more flirtatious manner.

But of course, that flew over Naruto's head, "What kind of reward?" he asked innocently.

Anko chuckled at the innocence of this kid, she leaned down and whispered a few words onto the blonde's ear. Shikamaru who knew what she was on about was feeling more and more uncomfortable as this conversation went on. Naruto wasn't faring any better, he was currently as red as a tomato while sweating profusely in embarrassment.

Anko chuckled as she saw the effect she left on the kid, 'good to know I still got it' she thought to herself. She later straightened herself up before addressing the two new Chunin promotes.

"Alright enough of this jibber jabber, I'll see you two in the front of the Konoha gates ready to leave, pack up to a weeks' worth of clothing just in case" she ordered as the two embarrassed boys nodded before abruptly leaving hoping to get away from the crazy snake lady.

Once they were a safe distance away the two decided to walk in a normal pace, "I can't even explain how troublesome that situation was" he said in his usual laid-back tone.

"Don't even get me started" replied a stuttering blonde Chunin.

"It looks like she really did a number on you"

"You have no idea Shikamaru" he said with a deadpanned look on his face.

* * *

 **Konoha Gates**

Naruto and Shikamaru were starting to get a little impatient, Anko was thirty minutes late to their rendezvous point. Shikamaru didn't seem to mind as much since it gave him more time to rest and recover. Naruto on the other hand was starting to become more and more restless.

"I expected this sort of stuff from Kakashi, but not that crazy snake lady either. I swear all of the Konoha Jonin I've met so far have all been pretty lame. I mean they're strong no doubt but they're still definitely lame" the irritated blonde ranted.

Shikamaru merely rolled his eyes, "Do you ever stay quiet?" Shikamaru asked rhetorically, "Just sit down and shut up, she'll be here soon. And besides I want to get a bit more shut eye".

"Jeez Shikamaru all you ever do in sleep or complain, you're such a lazy ass"

"You are what you eat" he said in a very soft tone, almost slipping past Naruto's ears.

"Yeah, wait what?" he asked.

"Nothing"

Naruto began to chuckle softly, "Never knew you had it in you to make a dirty joke Shikamaru. And for the longest time I always thought that women were too troublesome for you. Turns out you have a little bit of pervert in yourself as well" he exclaimed loudly for all people in the vicinity to here.

Shikamaru realized his mistake just then, he turned to Naruto with a stern look on his face.

"I regret ever saying that joke, I know I'm never going to live it down"

"You bet your ass buddy, I can't wait till Kiba and Choji hear about this"

The lazy Nara groaned inwardly, 'I am going to kill this idiot one day' he thought to himself as Naruto continued his loud and excessive laughing.

"Hey what's all the ruckus all about?"

Naruto and Shikamaru turned to the source of the voice only to find Anko standing there nonchalantly gnawing at a bit of dango.

The energetic blonde then remembered his annoyance towards her tardiness, "Hey what took you so long?" he yelled while pointing an accusing finger at Anko. "Me and Shikamaru have been waiting here for nearly an hour now and you show up now".

"Dango" she replied.

"What?"

"Dango"

"What do you mean Dango?"

"What I mean is that I ordered up a bit of dango before heading, must have lost track of time while I was eating" Anko answered.

Naruto wanted to take the moral high ground, but he knew ramen has done the same thing to him in the past with his team, and so he decided to let it go for now.

"Tch whatever let's just go I'm tired of waiting for your late ass" he muttered in annoyance.

"I don't know what you're so upset for, your sensei is Kakashi. You should be grateful it was just an hour" she said while continuing to chew on her dango.

'That is true' thought Naruto, but he wisely chose to shut his mouth for once to finally get this mission done and dusted. In truth Naruto was quite excited for this, this was going to be his first mission as a Chunin. But most of all he was gladder than anything to not have to do D-Rank missions anymore. Anything was better than doing those menial chores, or even worse catching that dreaded cat.

* * *

 **A Few Hours Later**

"So where are we actually going?" asked Naruto.

"We're actually not that far from our target location, it's just a small fishing village in the outskirts of the land of fire" she replied.

"So, what exactly are the parameters of the mission?" questioned the Nara.

"Oh, that's right I forgot to tell you guys about that, my bad"

Naruto and Shikamaru sweatdropped at the nonchalance of their supposed Jonin leader.

"There have been fishy reports lately, excuse the pun, about Bandits in the local area. Someone sent a mission request to liberate this village from the small-time bandits"

"Ah yes that mean we'll have to fight, cool. I get to show off my new kick ass moves" Naruto exclaimed in a rather excited tone. Since the retrieval of Tsunade Naruto hadn't gotten much action and now he was more than ready to go fight some lowlife bandits.

Shikamaru having ignored Naruto's rather eager outburst continued to question Anko about this mission, "How dangerous are the supposed targets?" he asked.

"According to reports there should be roughly ten of them, and luckily for us none of them have shown any ability in ninjutsu so they resort to carrying weapons. Unfortunately for the town their population was far too small to repel the intruders and they never had much in the brawn department to begin with. Many of the men were elderly and there were very few able-bodied men, but unfortunately for them those men were trained to fish and not to fight. This made it redundant for the villagers to resist the bandits"

"Ah I see, best to still be careful. We don't know for certain how strong they really are"

Anko nodded in agreement, "Complacency is a ninja's worst enemy" she said.

A couple of minutes later the small group managed to see the outskirts of the village, they began to make their way to the village but not before Anko gave a few last-minute orders to the two boys.

"Alright listen up we don't want to be seen just yet, and we don't want to notify the bandits that we're here in the village. We are going to sneak in and meet with the person who sent in this mission request, we are to meet him in his home and I will lead us there. Alright follow me" she said before running off into the distance, Naruto and Shikamaru nodded and ran after her.

As trained ninjas they were able to mask the sound of their steps quite well, to the untrained ears of the civilians they couldn't hear the three ninjas bolt past them as they hid in broad daylight.

In the end they managed to arrive in front of a simple yet quaint house on the western end of the village, Anko knocked lightly and a few seconds after that a bald old man looking to be in his late fifties went and opened to door. Anko studied him for a second to make sure he was the man Tsunade described and everything seemed to fit the bill.

"Hello how may I help you?" asked the kind old man.

"We're the Konoha ninjas you asked for, we'd like to ask you about the bandits who have been harassing your village"

The old man's eyes widened significantly, "Of course, of course come this way" he said as he directed them to the living room, "Please have a seat".

The three ninjas took his offer as they sat on the rather old leather couch sitting by the living room.

"Pardon me, but before we begin I'd like to get some introductions out of the way first. My name is Oba Shiro"

Naruto walked over to shake the old man's hands, "Hey there Shiro-san, the name's Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage of Konoha" he said.

The old man chuckled, "Well you definitely have a lot of confidence, I respect that kid" he replied before turning his attention to the other boy in the squad.

"Shikamaru Nara" he answered in a lazy uninterested tone.

"As for me my name is Anko Mitarashi and I'll be leading this mission, so tell me Shiro-san what have the bandits done thus far to your village? And if by any chance you can tell us a thing or two about what we'll be up against?" she inquired.

"But of course, Anko-san, these bandits started coming around three months ago. My village is small, and we lack any military prowess since were but a humble and peaceful fishing village in the Land of Fire, we have no true connections to the ninja world. At the start they had been raiding us for supplies mostly fish, and as a result our profits have been dwindling down significantly making it difficult for this village to sustain itself. What's worse is that recently we've started just offering our supplies to them to avoid raids altogether. We've started this as a form of damage control, but of course this is unstable. We as a village have been struggling, we've been able to feed the bandits but not ourselves".

Anko soaked all the knowledge in, "I see well Shiro-san you can count on us. We'll handle this and get rid of these bandits once and for all" she assured him.

The old man smiled warmly at the trio, "Thank you so much for doing this, this would mean a lot to the village. Oh, and more thing the raids happen once a week at the same time, it's scheduled at around midday tomorrow at the town square. Until then you three are more than welcome to stay the night here to prepare for tomorrow".

"Arigato Shiro-san"

* * *

 **The Next Day**

The three Konoha ninjas have stationed themselves within different areas of the town's market square, their job thus far was mingling around the area without arousing any suspicion.

Shikamaru of course was stationed by a nearby bench feeding birds with a few breadcrumbs. Naruto on the other hand was visiting and indulging in the local cuisine through the many street food shops located around the town. Then there was Anko, the leader of the operation took a similar approach to Naruto, but instead of the street food vendors she was browsing around the local clothing store.

It didn't take that long before that the town overheard a small war horn coming from out of town, this has been common practice for a while now. The local bandits would sound the small war horn to notify the village of their arrival giving them time to assemble their offerings to the bandits.

This method lessened the violence but at the same time it only went on to show how beaten down this town had been due to the local bandits. Naruto was particularly agitated at seeing all the struggling civilians giving away all their goods to appease some no-good criminals.

A quarter of an hour later, the bandits arrived. The three ninjas made sure to blend in their surroundings while their targets went on to harass the small village. Shops and vendors were forced to fork out as much money and goods as they could towards their abusers. Naruto was finding it more and more difficult to stay hidden, all he wanted to do right now was interfere and fight off these bandits, but of course he knew deep down that it was the stupid thing to do. Anko had given them specific orders not to interfere just yet, for now their duty was to gather as much intel as possible.

After half an hour of ransacking through the town's shops and vendors, the bandits made their way to the town's pub. The three ninjas watched from afar as the bandits drunkenly began to harass the citizens. They were threatening the bartender if he failed to give them free liquor and food, others were picking fights with the other patrons of the bar. There were also some lowlife individuals who were flirting and getting handsy with the girls around the vicinity.

This made Naruto's blood boil, watching them so gleefully ruin an entire town's livelihood. The young blonde had seen enough, he knew it was a bad idea, but he couldn't allow this to continue much further. The young Chunin clenched his fist and was about to head over down to the bar entrance, but before he could move a muscle he felt a sudden hand on his shoulder.

He glanced back briefly only to find Anko slowly shaking her head, Naruto wanted to protest but he knew it would be for naught, so he decided to step down.

"Don't do anything rash now, I'm in the same boat as you kid. I really want to teach them a lesson for what they're doing but now is not the time. We're here to find out their true numbers, their base and their level of danger. Once we have all those variables we'll strike"

Naruto sighed softly before proceeding to nod his head, "So what's your plan?" he questioned.

"Just sit back, watch and observe kid. Once these bastards are done with the town we'll tail them to evaluate their base"

* * *

 **Two Hours Later**

The group of bandits began to stumble out of the bar having seemingly more than enough alcohol in their system. Anko noticed this and made a sign for her team to tail these criminals. Lucky for them with the bandits being quite intoxicated as is, they failed to pay attention to the three ninjas following their every lead. Naruto chuckled to himself realizing how easy it was to trail these drunk buffoons.

Soon the trio followed the group until the outskirts of town, with less and less people and infrastructure around they were forced to hide around the trees. The trio walked for another half hour before stumbling upon a small encampment. Anko examined it from the distance and realized it was the bandit base they were looking for.

She quickly summoned a handful of regular sized snakes, "I want you five to scout the area and report to me how many reside in the base and if they're anything to worry about" she ordered as the snakes began to slither away.

"So, what do we now" asked Naruto.

"Don't you worry, my summons is going around to scout the premises. But from the looks of things we have two options right now"

"I'm guessing either we retreat with information and come up with a plan to defeat these guys, or we fight them now while they're vulnerable. Seeing how these bandits are not only unaware of our presence but are also inebriated, I personally believe a surprise attack now would be extremely effective" said Shikamaru.

"Hm, you really are a smart kid, aren't you?" Anko asked rhetorically, "You're not completely wrong though, before we make a proper decision we should wait for my summons to return to give us their findings of the base. If the situation calls for it we will strike, but if not, we will return".

After five minutes the snakes began to slither back to Anko, "What have you guys found?" she asked.

"The bandits seem to be led by a rogue ninja Anko-sama" hissed the snake.

"What did the rogue look like? And what made you sure it really was a missing nin?"

"It seems that the leader is a missing nin of Konoha, he has the hitai-ate itself with a cut on the village's emblem. It was a man of medium height with long, spiky green hair." He described.

The snake mistress quickly grabbed her bingo book from her pouch before examining the chapter regarding missing nin from Konoha. She had found a couple of pictures matching the description, after a while they managed to come up with the identity of the leader.

"Well this makes things a lot more complicated" dryly remarked Anko.

"Why what's up Anko-sensei?" asked Naruto.

"The leader of this group is Aoi Rokusho, I know this guy he's a former jonin of Konoha. He was labelled a missing nin after he stole the Raijin no Ken, a legendary sword owned by the Nidaime Hokage. Let me tell you now kids, this guy's the real deal"

"That was all we've found thus far Anko-sama, if you need us again do not hesitate to summon us" said the snakes.

Anko nodded in understanding, "Ah I see, thank you for your help" she said as the snaked nodded slowly to her before vanishing and leaving a small cloud of smoke.

"What do you think we should do then?" asked the blonde Chunin.

"I think it may be best for us to head back for now and gather reinforcements" said Anko.

"Nani? That's bullshit we can fight them here and now to get rid of all of them. No way in hell I'm letting them continue harassing that village" exclaimed the eccentric and emotional Jinchuuriki.

"Don't you think I don't feel the same way brat, the fact of the matter is that Aoi guy, I'm not sure if I can take him by myself. I probably could if he didn't have the Raijin no Ken, but the sword by itself makes him a formidable opponent"

"I'd hate to play devil's advocate, but I actually agree with Naruto, this is the perfect opportunity to strike. All but that Aoi guy is drunk right now, and quite frankly Naruto's shadow clones will be more than enough to deal with the bandits especially at their current state. Meaning that if we dispose of the bandits then the three of us could focus on Aoi as a team and with our combined efforts I'm sure we can find a way to defeat him" said Shikamaru.

Anko sighed she knew she had the final say in all things regarding this mission being the Jonin leader. But even she had to admit that from the reports that this Shikamaru kid was an absolute tactical genius, and if he felt this was the best option then she would at least consider it. Besides with Shikamaru being the shrewd strategist he is, he could always come up with a plan within the following minutes and that alone could possibly shift the momentum of the battle their way.

But of course, that wasn't all, her other Chunin wasn't too bad either. Naruto garnered quite a bit of interest for his actions during the Chunin Exams. Safe to say despite this kid's lack of tact, strategy and patience, he packed quite the punch. Despite the early age the boy already learned a powerful jutsu in the form of the Rasengan, not to mention his growing mastery of Shadow Clones. Other than that, he also can summon toads.

The more she thought about it the more she realized how realistic it really was for them to complete their mission here and there. First, they have the element of surprise in their hand, and with many of the bandits still being intoxicated from the alcohol they barely pose as a threat. Hell, Naruto's shadow clones could probably take care of them.

"Like I said I still worry about the Raijin no Ken, it's a legendary sword with unbelievable power. Aoi was never really that powerful as a shinobi, but the weapon he wields is a dangerous one"

Shikamaru smirked confidently, "I can probably think up a plan for this if we got a map of the area and the necessary equipment I have in mind" he said.

"Lucky for you brat we do have a map, but what sort of stuff do you need?"

"All I need are bomb seals"

"So be it, I'll give you ten minutes to come up with one and if I don't like what I hear we're going back" replied the snake mistress.

"I only need five"

* * *

 **Several Minutes Later**

'Overwhelm them' Shikamaru thought to himself as he glanced at Naruto, the two shared a small nod to themselves to begin their assault on the bandit camp.

Shikamaru let out a unique bird call, and Anko knew it was time to strike. She had been told to secretly plant as many bombs around the enemy encampment. Of course, to avoid detection she allowed her summoned snakes to unsuspectingly slither inside the base and place their explosive seals.

Once everything was set she jumped up back to the trees to get away from the planted bombs. Once she was in a safe distance she unleashed the explosives through one hand seal. The camp was suddenly engulfed in both flames and smoke as the bandits began to flurry in a see of panic.

Then stage two of the plan was unleashed, dozens upon dozens of Naruto's clones began to arrive attacking as many bandits on sight.

Of course, the drunk bandits were unable to defend themselves from this surprise attack and so one by one they began to feel the wrath of Naruto Uzumaki's shadow clone army.

The real Naruto however watched from the trees alongside Anko and Shikamaru. The three of them were waiting for Aoi to reveal himself, then as if on cue they found a green haired man fleeing the sight while shooting bolts of lighting towards the Naruto clones chasing after him.

"There he is, let's go tail him" said Anko as the Jonin began to run through the treetops. The two Chunin followed suit not that long after, Naruto was confident enough to leave his clones there knowing they were more than capable of handling the rest of the criminals.

The three ninjas tailed the fleeing missing nin, lucky for them Aoi failed to notice them or their chakra signatures seeing how he was far too preoccupied escaping and dispelling the hordes of shadow clones.

Eventually after a chase which lasted another three minutes Aoi found himself nearing a large lake restricting his plans of escape. So instead he held his ground as the last small group of clones jumped up to attack him, but with the Raijin no Ken in his hands he was easily able to defeat the small horde.

Now with the clones dealt with Aoi sighed a breath of relief, but upon doing so he then managed to detect three chakra signatures along the trees just before the shoreline.

"Come out I know you're there" he yelled threateningly, of course the three Konoha ninjas stayed in absolute silence watching from the distance. Aoi's patience was wearing thin by the lack of a reply, and so in his state of anger he began to shoot bolts of lightning towards different trees.

Naruto waited patiently, everything was going according to plan he just needed to wait for him to strike the tree he stood on, then as if on cue a bolt of lightning was shot at his direction. The young blonde smirked as he weaved through a few hand seals.

" **Fūton: Daitoppa"**

The blast of wind did enough to dispel the lightning, but before Aoi could shoot another Naruto jumped down and ran towards the man. Then he threw a Fuma Shuriken at the Jonin who easily managed to dodge it. The Chunin smirked as it brought him back to his battle against Zabuza.

Aoi's eyes widened when he heard a pop, he glanced at the back of his eye and there was a woman where the Fuma Shuriken flew past.

' **Henge no Jutsu'** he thought to himself before tossing an umbrella high up into the air, the umbrella beforehand was attached to his hip.

" **Sen'ei Jashu"**

Anko launched a few snakes towards the missing nin, but unfortunately for her Aoi was one step ahead. With the umbrella up in the air he shot out Senbon after Senbon towards Anko's snakes.

" **Jouro Senbon"**

With the snakes disappearing after taking so much damage Aoi then pointed his sword towards Anko, but before he could shoot his lightning powered attack he noticed an inability to move his body rendering him unable to deliver the fatal blow. He glanced down at his feet to notice shadows binding him to where he stood. He glanced back at Anko to see the woman holding a victorious smirk on her face.

'So, this was all just a distraction to keep me in place, impressive' he thought to himself in dread about what was to happen next.

" **Kagemane no Jutsu"**

'These brats aren't half bad actually' Anko thought to herself.

Aoi then shook in fear as he heard chakra whirling from behind him, then before he could begin think what it was causing that noise he heard a loud yell from behind him.

" **Rasengan"**

Naruto plunged the ball of chakra into the man's back causing him a world of pain. But of course with Naruto being as merciful as he was he made sure not to make the attack fatal, just enough to injure and leave him unconscious for a long period of time.

Shikamaru then released him bind on him and as he did Aoi unceremoniously dropped down to the floor unconscious. Anko chuckled to herself as she went over to grab Aoi's stolen blade.

"Brats you did well for yourselves, I'm sure the Hokage will be pleased with us bringing this bad boy back" she said pointing to the sword, "I reckon she'll classify this mission as A-Rank for what we did".

Naruto celebrated as he usually did, loudly and energetically. Shikamaru on the other hand only held a cool smirk, he really was pleased that his plan managed to work as he envisioned it beforehand.

"Alright then team, I'll hold onto the blade and I'll summon one of my snakes to help us carry Aoi as we return to the village and then Konoha"

* * *

 **Konoha**

Naruto and his team managed to return to Konoha a day later in one piece, unscathed even thanks to the genius strategy used by Shikamaru. Anko allowed them to return home as she took care of the mission briefing with the Hokage. The two Chunin were more than thankful for that gesture as they returned to their respective homes to finally rest.

Not too long after that word of their actions spread like wildfire, it was the hot new topic around the village. Naruto was slowly beginning to make quite the reputation for himself. So far, he had completed two S-Rank missions, both of which as genin, and another A-Rank mission just the other day. The S-Rank missions of course being Team Seven's mission to Wave and his and Jiraiya's retrieval of the soon to be Godaime Hokage. Add to that Naruto's role and actions in the Chunin Exams and the following invasion, it was as if you were watching the start of a new legend.

But of course, Naruto wasn't the only one garnering a bit of attention. Word of Shikamaru spread as well, mostly due to his tactical masterclass during the Chunin Exams. But their run in with Aoi added a lot more credibility to his name, and the praises from Anko helped. It was starting to become well known that the young Nara's mind was a force to be reckoned with.

Since that mission against Aoi, Naruto and Shikamaru soon after were in extreme demand. Not too long after their A-Rank mission the duo was soon assigned mission after mission and being put to work with many unfamiliar ninjas, the two slowly but surely began to gain the trust of Tsunade. Thus, the two of them being allowed on constant missions.

For the next three months Naruto and Shikamaru were constantly going on and off missions ranging from C-Rank to B-Rank, with the occasional A-Rank mission. Though the A-Rank missions tended to be quite rare these days. They weren't normally assigned to A-Rank missions, but they've accepted lower ranking missions which escalate to higher levels of difficulty. The two of them, Naruto especially simply had a knack for scoping out trouble.

Slowly but surely Naruto and Shikamaru were garnering a bit of attention from the ninja world. In the three months they managed to dismantle the Shinobazu group that had been harassing the Land of Forests. They helped return Haruna the true Daimyo of the Land of Vegetables back to her throne, along with helping Toki also reclaim her position as the ruler of the Land of Birds. Finally, they helped save Yakumo Kurama, the heiress of the Kurama clan from her cruel uncle, Unkai Kurama. These were only the significant missions they participated across the three months, other than these they also had the constant influx of C-Rank missions. Usually these missions entailed bodyguard duties, bandit disposal, escort missions and delivery missions.

Since those eventful three months both Naruto and Shikamaru barely had time to themselves to train let alone catch up with their old teams. Week after week they were deployed in long term missions stretching for 3-6 days. Their interaction with Teams Seven and Ten respectively was extremely limited.

Naruto only really met up with Kakashi to train, and every now and again Asuma-sensei as well for his wind techniques. He hadn't really seen either Sasuke or Sakura at that time, it just so happened team Seven themselves were also being deployed on various missions, just not to the level of danger and importance as Naruto and Shikamaru's.

* * *

 **Hokage's Office**

"You called for us Baa-chan?" asked Naruto as he peaked through the office's door.

A tick mark formed right on Tsunade's forehead, but she let it be for now, "Yeah gaki now get your ass over here" she exclaimed.

Naruto and Shikamaru both casually walked in the Hokage's office fully expecting another mission, seeing how they had just been summoned by ANBU not that long ago.

"You two have been working yourselves to the bone recently, don't get me wrong you two have been doing a great job but I think its best if I give you guys a bit of a break" said the blonde Hokage.

'Booyah' thought Shikamaru as a small grin formed on the edges of his lips.

"What? That's bull I want to go on more missions" loudly exclaimed Naruto.

'Dammit you jerk don't ruin this for me' Shikamaru thought to himself.

Tsunade could only sigh in annoyance, she knew Naruto would be a hard case. For some reason the brat loved going on missions, he was a bit of a workaholic. But no matter how much he whined though there was no way Tsunade was changing her mind, her decision was final.

"Sorry gaki but I'm not changing my mind, trust me when I say it'll be good for you. You wouldn't want to overwork yourself, everyone needs a bit of a break every now and again. Think of it this way, without the call for missions for the next few weeks it means you can focus more on your training or even join your team in their training. I heard you haven't really seen your team that much if not at all these past few months explained Tsunade.

Naruto nodded his head sheepishly, "I guess when you put it that way it would be good to go have a bit of training again. It's been too long since I last properly learned a jutsu. Plus, I guess I should pay a visit to Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke-teme and Sakura-chan. I bet they're miserable without me" he chortled to himself.

"Exactly Naruto, and of course if you really want to be Hokage one day you'll need to train. The missions have been good for you I'm sure but with some time off you can work on learning some new jutsus" she said knowing that the boy would be easily convinced if she mentioned the Hokage position.

Naruto's eyes gleamed brightly in excitement, Tsunade grinned seeing the boy's reaction.

'Hook, line, and sinker' she thought to herself

"It's settled then I'll go on vacation for a while to train, but I demand an A-Rank mission and nothing less when I'm done"

Tsunade rolled her eyes deciding to play along with the boy's demands to finally get him off her back, "Yeah sure thing gaki" she replied dryly.

"Alright with all that sorted you two should get on your way, I have a boatload of paperwork to do" grimaced the busty blonde.

* * *

 **With Naruto**

The young blonde was walking aimlessly across the streets of Konoha, Shikamaru had left earlier to go back cloud watching. Naruto wasn't quite keen for a full afternoon of gazing at the sky so instead he chose to wonder around in hopes of finding someone to train with. It was at that moment Naruto was broken out of his reverie by the sound of a familiar perverse giggling, he glanced towards the source of the sound and was not even surprised to find his sensei Jiraiya standing around one of Konoha's many bathhouses. The young blonde sighed in annoyance, he still to this day couldn't believe this guy was considered one of Konoha's most legendary ninjas.

He walked over to his sensei as he continued scribbling down some notes, an evil grin appeared on Naruto's face as Jiraiya failed to notice his student walking towards him, he was far too preoccupied with his current research for his famous novels.

"Hey Ero-Sennin how's the peeping going" said Naruto in an extra loud noise, loud enough for everyone in the vicinity to hear. Of course, this alerted all the girls in the hot springs causing them to stand up and leave the area in fear of being peeped on by this pervert.

Jiraiya turned back to Naruto with a defeated look, "Why the hell did you have to do that gaki?" he exclaimed in annoyance.

Naruto's smug grin never vanished, "You deserved it for being such a perv. Also, it's a good thing I bumped into you because I need a bit of training. Baa-chan gave me like a month off from active duty" he explained.

Jiraiya could only sigh in frustration, he couldn't stay angry at the boy, but it was annoying for his research to be halted.

"Yeah I've heard you've been going out on some notable missions as of late. Speaking of which it's been a while since we've actually last seen each other"

Naruto thought about it for a second before nodded in agreement, "Yeah you're right I guess I've just been so busy with missions lately. I haven't really had much time for anyone" he replied.

"Don't worry gaki it's been the same for me, I actually just came back today. I was away for a couple months working on my spy network, Tsunade asked me to gather some intel about a few things here and there"

"So how about it Ero-Sennin, a bit of training for old time's sake?" asked Naruto.

Jiraiya smiled at his young apprentice, "Yeah sure thing gaki, we'll start tomorrow for now let's catch up over some food, I'm starving right now".

Naruto's eyes lit up with excitement, "Ichiraku's Ramen" yelled the excited blonde.

Jiraiya rolled his eyes expecting this from his student, "Yeah sure thing but I won't be paying for you and your meals. From what I've heard you've garnered some money doing all those missions. It should be you treating me out today" he said.

"Alright, you cheap old man. I'll pay for your meal but in return you better take this training seriously. I don't want to waste this month off doing nothing"

"You got yourself a deal, I was planning on training you regardless plus I already made a small training regimen for you while I was away"

This caught Naruto's attention as his ears perked up in curiosity, "Oh so what are you planning on teaching me then Ero-Sennin?" he asked.

"Well I heard about your run-in with the Kurama clan and I believe it will be good to work a bit on your genjutsu defense. Other than that, I also plan on helping you out a bit more with your summoning, some taijutsu work and some chakra control exercises. Ah and finally there is something I've been meaning to teach you for a while now and I think it's finally time we work on this"

"And what would that be?" questioned the young Chunin.

"Fuinjutsu" replied Jiraiya.

"Fuinjutsu? What's that?"

"It's the art of seals Naruto, it may not sound all that powerful seeing how its usually used as a supplementary skill in ninjutsu but if used the right way it could be considered as the strongest of all branches of ninjutsu. It was what defeated the Kyuubi in the end for example, had it not been for the Yondaime's sealing him into you then the Kyuubi will still be around wreaking havoc" he explained.

The blonde Chunin nodded in understanding, "That actually sounds pretty cool" he admitted.

"To be exact, it is a technique that seal objects, living beings, chakra, along with a wide variety of other things within another object"

"Sounds complicated" relied Naruto.

Jiraiya chuckled as he ruffled the boy's hair, "Well you're in luck because as we have it I'm also a master in the arts of Fuinjutsu. I have been working on seals since I was fifteen years old so trust me when I say I am a seal master" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Yosh let's get it started already. You're making me excited Ero-Sennin"

Jiraiya who shared the same level of excitement as the young man replied swiftly, "As much as I would love to Naruto it is getting late, but I am definitely eager to work on this. Fuinjutsu has been one of my passions as a kid, if you ask me it is one of the forgotten arts of the ninja world. More and more people should study Fuinjutsu, it is extremely useful and in the right hands very powerful. But other than Fuinjutsu I also plan on teaching you some Barrier Ninjutsu as well. You're far too attack minded sometimes Naruto, it would be good to help you with your defensive strategies in battle" he said.

"I won't say no to that, but before that we should go grab this ramen. I'm starving right now"

"Sure, thing gaki, but remember I am not paying for you this time. You got enough cash from those missions to pay for your own outrageous meal"

Naruto merely rolled his eyes, "Yeah whatever you say you cheap perv" he retorted.

"Hey I resent that"

* * *

 **With Naruto**

A week had passed since Naruto began his training with Jiraiya, so far it had been steady to say the least. Jiraiya had decided it be best to ease Naruto into the complex world of seals and barriers, and so to begin with he chose to show Naruto basic D-Rank Barrier techniques. Whereas for Fuinjutsu they were still in a very beginner phase, with Naruto primarily focusing on his penmanship for the complex Kanji and symbols used for the seals.

During the past week they also worked on some taijutsu and continued a strict fitness regimen to keep Naruto fit as well. Other than that, they trained in genjutsu defense, chakra control, and meditation. Traditionally you would be hard-pressed to find a ninja with the ability to train in all these areas effectively. But Naruto was not your traditional ninja, and so with his special skill of summoning large groups of shadow clones, of course Naruto and Jiraiya resorted to using the Shadow Clones to their advantage. It was only the most efficient and effective manner of training, and in doing so they were able to instill as much knowledge as they could in such a short span of time into the head of one Naruto Uzumaki.

So far everything seemed extremely complicated to Naruto, he knew he was making progress, but he underestimated just how intricate and complex these arts really are. Fuinjutsu and Barrier Ninjutsu were without a doubt so different to the standard form of Ninjutsu. The young blonde Chunin was truly amazed and astounded by these sophisticated arts.

Naruto was breezily walking through the lively streets of Konoha, Jiraiya had cancelled on him today stating he had official business to take care of. The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki was far from fooled though, he absolutely knew that was just Jiraiya's excuse to go peeping. But that didn't bother Naruto, he had to admit himself he really had been overworking himself as of late. He wouldn't complain about one small day off to rest and relax.

A flash of pink then invaded Naruto's vision, the Chunin noticed Sakura from the corner of his eye. She was browsing around the many stalls surrounding the streets. She was eyeing this small stall containing jewelry.

A big smile appeared on Naruto's previously bored face, he lightly jogged over to the pinkette while waving his hand in the air.

"Hey Sakura-chan, long time no see" he yelled loudly for everyone to hear.

The pinkette turned around and was surprised to find Naruto making his way over to her, it had been months since she last saw her teammate and she had to admit she kind of missed him a bit. Every time she was training or going on missions with Team Seven it always felt like there was something lacking. Team Seven used to be so full of life but now it turned somewhat dull. Sakura most of the time was stuck with either Sasuke or Kakashi, not that she minded for the former. But neither of them was exactly the talkative type. Silence engulfed the team for most of their interaction, sometimes it even turned awkward with the lack of general communication. It was at these moments that Sakura truly realized Naruto's biggest contribution to Team Seven, life. Without Naruto Team Seven seemed lifeless.

Sakura however despite being happy to see her teammate, winced at the volume of the boy's voice. Sometimes that boy fails to realize just how loud he is, as Naruto walked towards Sakura the latter delivered a small bonk to his head.

Naruto nursed the small bump on the top of his head, "Ow Sakura-chan what was that for?" he asked.

"That was for being too loud, honestly Naruto I wouldn't be surprised if the people two blocks away could hear you"

The blonde pouted, "Sometimes your mean Sakura-chan" he replied in a childish tone.

A tick mark appeared on Sakura's face, "Would you care to repeat that Naruto?" she asked in a sickly-sweet tone entailing possible danger for our blonde hero.

Naruto chuckled nervously, "I'd rather not" he replied sheepishly, "But anyway it's been too long Sakura-chan. It's so good to see you again".

Sakura smiled and nodded in agreement, "I know, it's been months since we last saw each other. From what Kakashi-sensei has told me, you've been extremely busy with missions lately" she said.

"Yeah, he's not wrong, it's just been a constant influx of missions lately, Baa-chan has been sending me and Shikamaru out on the fields like every week. Being a Chunin is hard work Sakura-chan. But enough about me what were you just up to just then?"

"Ah I was just browsing around the streets since today's my day off and I came across this small jewelry store and I ended up browsing around the wares"

"Anything catch your eye thus far?"

"Yes, actually there's this cute necklace over here" she said pointing to this silver necklace which held a pink cherry blossom tree.

"Oh, a Sakura for Sakura, that's cool" replied Naruto, "Hey mister how much is this necklace?".

"That'll be 5000 ryo" the vendor replied in a bored tone not really expecting kids to have the money to buy any of his products.

"Here's the money" said Naruto as he pulled out a small stack of bills. Sakura's eyes widened in shock as did the vendor's.

"Hey Naruto, what are you doing that for?" she questioned intently.

"I want to buy this for you, you seem to really want it and I think it'll look good on you"

Sakura blushed profusely, "Don't do that Naruto I can save up for it myself, don't waste your money on me. That's a lot of money baka" she protested trying to get him to change his mind.

"Too late Sakura-chan" he said before handing the money to the speechless vendor, the man then gingerly grabbed the necklace from the display before handing it over to Naruto.

"Um thanks sir" he said in a confused tone.

"Thanks a lot mister" replied Naruto before he turned over to Sakura. The pinkette was stunned and speechless at what had just transpired. The young blonde then leaned over to the shocked pinkette personally placing the necklace around her neck himself. He then pulled himself back giving her his trademark smile.

"Don't worry so much Sakura-chan I made a bit of money from my missions lately. Plus, I thought it was fitting to get a beautiful Sakura necklace for Sakura-chan"

The kunoichi's blush deepened to an even darker shade of red, she was stunned but at the same time extremely grateful to the young boy. She never really expected anything like this to happen.

"So, what do you think Sakura-chan? Do you like it?"

The pinkette shook her head to return from her reverie, she then walked over to Naruto and engulfed him in a hug catching the blonde in surprise. Naruto then reciprocated the same deep blush as Sakura had on her face at that very moment as he returned the hug.

"Thank you so much Naruto, I love it. It's absolutely beautiful" she exclaimed joyfully.

"No problem Sakura-chan anything for you" he shyly replied.

Sakura then broke the hug, a small awkward air surrounded the two after that small romantic moment, a large blush continued adorning their faces.

"Let me pay you back in one-way Naruto, I can treat you out to some ramen it's the least I can do for you" she said as Naruto's eyes sparkled in excitement.

"Really? That would be awesome"

Sakura shrugged, "Like I said it's the least I can do Naruto, you did so much for me today" she said.

"It's a date then" exclaimed Naruto before realizing his slip up, he turned to the pinkette expecting to see her in a furious state of mind. But this time he was pleasantly surprised to find her chuckling as a small grin adorned her face.

"I'll let that one slide Naruto. I'll tell you what, we can make this a true date"

"Yatta let's go Sakura-chan, we can catch up some more and talk over at Ichiraku's"

The two walked in relative silence over to the restaurant, neither really uttering a word due to slightly romantic scene between the two just a couple minutes ago.

Eventually they made their way to Ichiraku's, and upon entering the father and daughter duo of Teuchi and Ayame directed their attention to the two young kids. The two shared a knowing look and a similar grin as they saw their favorite customer come in with a girl.

"Hello Naruto-kun good to see you again, I see you brought yourself a date this time" she teased.

Naruto and Sakura blushed awkwardly but Naruto managed to recover first as he smiled at his sister figure, "Yeah Ayame-neechan, Sakura-chan and I are here for a small date. Can we please get a private booth?" he replied.

Ayame giggled softly, "Of course Naruto-kun, right this way" she said before leading them to their seats, "Now here's the menu, I'll be back in a couple of minutes to take your order".

The two nodded as they browsed through the menu, but in truth Naruto already knew what he wanted.

"What do you plan on getting Naruto?" asked the pinkette.

"Pork Ramen, it's my absolute favorite" he replied exuberantly, "What about you Sakura-chan?".

"Hm I'm thinking about the vegetarian ramen, but then again the broth will have a bit too much calories than I would want. I got to maintain this diet I have" she muttered softly as she continued to read through the entire menu.

"You probably shouldn't do that Sakura-chan"

"Do what the diet? I've been gaining too much pounds lately and I want to maintain a skinny frame" she replied.

"I think you look great just the way you are" he said causing her to blush and look up at him in surprise, "And plus you're a ninja anyway. You need to eat if you want to have some energy, the stuff we do is tiring and we need to be ready".

Sakura sighed in defeat, "For once you're right Naruto" she answered causing a slight annoyance for Naruto, "Alright then I'll let go of it for now. I guess I am pretty hungry".

"That's the spirit Sakura-chan"

"So, what do you suggest then seeing how often you frequent the place you must know the menu like the back of your hand by now"

"Trust me when I say this, order Pork Ramen. It is the best dish served in all of Konoha"

Sakura chuckled finding it hard to believe but she'll decide to humor him for a bit. Ayame arrived not too long after and the two ordered a couple servings of Pork Ramen. While waiting for their dishes the two conversed in small talk, catching up with one another.

They talked about their recent missions as of late, Sakura was intrigued and amazed by the type of missions Naruto had been finding himself in. They seemed far more interesting but at the same time dangerous than the missions Team Seven were participating in.

Sakura on the other hand told Naruto stories of Team Seven, with Kakashi and Sasuke. She admitted it wasn't nearly as lively as before and Naruto appreciated that remark. Other than that, she informed him about everything going on with Team Seven's training and missions, from the sounds of things Sasuke was improving and Naruto was excited to see the teme and challenge him in a proper fight.

The pinkette was no slouch either thought, unbeknownst to Naruto apparently, she sought out Tsunade one day in hopes of having her take her as an apprentice. It took a lot of convincing from Sakura's part but in the end, she succeeded. She simply didn't want to burden the team, it was clear Kakashi focused mostly on Sasuke, and Naruto had Jiraiya. Kakashi tried his best for everyone but seeing how he was the only other person in Konoha with a Sharingan, it was to be expected that he focused on the Last Uchiha. Though Naruto and Sakura held no grudge since they're teacher had been doing his best to teach them their own skills as well.

Apparently since Naruto last saw Sakura she had begun training in the arts of medical ninjutsu and from the sounds of things Tsunade was slowly building up to teaching Sakura the secret to her unbelievable strength. When that day eventually comes Naruto will make sure to remind himself never to piss Sakura off again unless he wishes to face her wrath.

Naruto in turn told her about his current training regimen with Jiraiya, how he was working on his chakra control and some genjutsu defense. With the focus of the training on Fuinjutsu and Barrier Ninjutsu, Sakura was surprised at the complex forms of ninjutsu Naruto was training in. He really was a special case, if you asked Sakura eight months ago if Naruto would have been a good ninja she would have told you outright, no way in hell. But now he was proving not only her but everyone wrong, he was quickly making a name for himself in the ninja world.

Sakura could only admire the blonde, she had to admit that at first, she found his incredible determination and confidence as foolish. But now she could only admire the young man, despite the odds he persevered and now he is being rewarded. This do or die attitude of Naruto eventually became endearing for Sakura, and in a way, it made him more attractive to her. There was just something about his unwillingness to surrender or accept defeat that showed this confident side of Naruto. Despite the immeasurable odds against him he never flinched or faltered, he always faced his challengers head on. It was this way with the likes of Zabuza, Gaara, Orochimaru, Kabuto and so on so forth, and if Sakura had to bet this was going to be the trait of his that he will never grow out of.

Not too long after that their meals arrived and the two sat in relative silence as they diverged their attention to the mouth-watering food placed in front of them. Soon after the two finished eating, Sakura paid for their meals before walking out. The two suddenly noticed the time and decided it was time to head home. But with Naruto being Naruto he decided to walk Sakura home first before heading back to his apartment. This gesture did not go unnoticed by Sakura, she found this small action sweet and she was grateful to Naruto.

Eventually they made it Sakura's house, she was about to enter but before she did she turned to Naruto and hugged him one more time tonight. Naruto who was as red as a tomato returned the hug.

"Hey Naruto, I actually really had a lot of fun today. The necklace was beautiful and I cannot stop thanking you for it, I really appreciated it" she said as they separated from the warm embrace, "It was so good seeing you again after so long".

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head as he chuckled softly in embarrassment, "Thanks Sakura-chan I had a great time as well" he said before fidgeting nervously.

Sakura raised a single eyebrow at seeing Naruto suddenly go nervous, this was so unlike him.

"Um would you like to go out with me again sometime for some ramen or something?" he asked in a unusually soft tone.

Sakura chuckled inside her mind upon seeing Naruto at such a reduced state, this was such a far cry from his usual charismatic and energetic self. She kind of found it cute how he reverted to this shy mess, and she was also honored to realize it was her causing him to be this way.

"You know what, I'd actually love to" she replied with a small smile gracing her lips.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock before a large foxlike smile formed on the boy's face, "Yatta I can't wait Sakura-chan, don't you worry I'll make you have the time of your life" he said.

"But I'll only do it in one condition though Naruto"

Naruto's shoulders slumped realizing there was a catch, "What's the catch then?" he asked meekly.

"I want you to come over and join the Team Seven training tomorrow, Kakashi-sensei organized a training session tomorrow afternoon and it would be fun to have all three members there for a day at least. It may not seem it sometimes, but I miss the old days with the three of us" she said.

The blonde Chunin was shocked to say the least at her request, but lucky for him it was a request he was more than willing to oblige.

"You got it Sakura-chan I'll be there. I'll make sure though to let Ero-Sennin know I won't make it to our training session, I'm sure he'll understand"

"Alright then I expect to see you there" she said before deciding to be a bit cheeky with the boy, "Goodnight Naruto-kun" she said before entering her house.

"Goodnight Saku…" his eyes widened in shock as he just registered what she said, "ra-chan".

A light blush adorned his face, he stood there motionless for a couple seconds before deciding to turn around and walk back to his apartment. If you noticed the Chunin walking back, you'd notice he had a small spring to his step that wasn't there before.

Unknown to the blonde a certain white-haired sage watched all the events transpire today, he let out a perverted giggle into the night sky as he furiously jotted down notes on his small notebook.

"Don't worry kid I'll let you have the day off, it's the least I can do for all the material you gave me today. I struck gold with the brat" he muttered to himself as he continued to write down his notes.

'Besides if I let him train with his team tomorrow I might just be able to get even more notes from the brat and that Tsunade clone' he thought to himself'.

* * *

 **Glossary**

Fūton: Daitoppa - Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

Henge no Jutsu - Transformation Technique

Sen'ei Jashu - Hidden Shadow Snake Hands

Jouro Senbon - Senbon Shower

Kagemane no Jutsu - Shadow Imitation Technique

Rasengan - Spiralling Sphere

 **Author's Note**

Well there you go ladies and gentlemen. Like I previously said, I am very sorry for the lateness of my updates but thank you all for bearing with me. Remember to head over to my profile to vote on them story ideas, I'd live to know what you guys want. Thanks a lot everyone and remember to leave a review, and also favorite and follow if you haven't already.


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